First Hijab-Wearing Mayor of London, Rakhia Ismail, Quits Labour over Islamophobia, Racism
New Age Islam News Bureau
13 October 2020
Somalian-born Rakhia Ismail has resigned from the
Labour party due to alleged “racism”, “discrimination”, and “white man
opression.”
----
• UAE’s Mohamed Bin Zayed, Israeli PM Netanyahu
Examine ‘Prospects for Peace’ In Region
• Mathura Mosque Case: Now an Appeal before a District
Judge against a Civil Court Order for the Removal of Idgah Masjid
• Taliban Consider Ceasefire their Political Defeat:
Saleh
• Pakistan Complies With Just two Of 40 FATF
Directives
• Datuk Keramat: Penang Will Not Demolish Non-Muslim
Places Of Worship Indiscriminately
Europe
• First Hijab-Wearing Mayor of London, Rakhia Ismail,
Quits Labour over Islamophobia, Racism
• UK Terrorist Watched Daesh Videos in Jail before
Trying To Kill Guard
• Bin Laden’s Former Spokesman Bound for Britain after
US Release
• Tension between Turkey and Greece rise in crisis
over eastern Mediterranean
• Incumbent president, Turkey-backed premier to vie in
Northern Cyprus runoff
• Germany reiterates full commitment to Iran nuclear
deal, regrets US withdrawal
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Arab World
• UAE’s Mohamed Bin Zayed, Israeli PM Netanyahu
Examine ‘Prospects for Peace’ In Region
• Hezbollah Official Calls On Lebanon Army to Do More
in Shia Stronghold amid Violence
• Lebanon alters delegation for US-led talks with
Israel after Hezbollah backlash
• Official UAE Delegation Trip to Israel Set for
October 20: Source
• Lebanon’s ex-PM Hariri to meet parties over French
rescue plan
• ‘We have to remain because one day we may finally
disappear’: Jewish Egyptians
• World must press Saudi to implement IAEA Safeguards:
Iran's envoy
• Iraqi militias say they have halted anti-U.S.
attacks
--------
India
• Mathura Mosque Case: Now an Appeal before a District
Judge against a Civil Court Order for the Removal of Idgah Masjid
• Muslim Clerics Oppose Assam Government’s Decision To
Close Down State-Run Madrasas
• Farooq Abdullah never said Article 370 will be
restored with China’s help, clarifies National Conference
• BJP calls Farooq’s Art 370 remark ‘seditious’, says
it compromises country’s sovereignty
• Indians abducted in Libya released, efforts on for
their return home: MEA
• Pakistani Lashkar commander, aide killed in Srinagar
encounter
• NIA arrests terror suspect from Budgam
• 3 Jammu and Kashmir teachers held under PSA, school
faces terror scan
--------
South Asia
• Taliban Consider Ceasefire their Political Defeat:
Saleh
• Afghan Forces Kill Over 70 Taliban Militants, Detain
Local Leader in Helmand: Officials
• Afghans: a Mercenary Martial Race or Misplaced
Potential?
• Ghani: Helmand Battle will Cost Taliban Heavy
• Violence ‘Increased’ Amid Peace Negotiations:
Abdullah
• Rakhine: Covid aggravates apartheid towards Rohingya
Muslims
--------
Pakistan
• Pakistan Complies With Just two Of 40 FATF
Directives
• Pakistan PM’s top aide Asim Saleem Bajwa resigns
following reports of corruption
• Safdar seeks pre-arrest bail over NAB asset inquiry
• ‘Gang of dacoits’ out to hide its corruption, says
Imran
• Maryam predicts govt ouster before January
--------
Southeast Asia
• Datuk Keramat: Penang Will Not Demolish Non-Muslim
Places Of Worship Indiscriminately
• Malaysia's Anwar says he gave king proof of over 120
MPs' support
• China asks Malaysia to safeguard detained sailors’
rights
• Malaysia's Anwar summoned by police over complaints
ahead of meeting with monarch
--------
Mideast
• Iran’s Judiciary to Establish Special Court to
Prosecute US Crimes
• Israel court rejects call for immediate release of
Palestinian prisoner
• Spokesman: UN Arms Embargos against Iran to Expire
at Weekend to Inflict Historical Defeat on US
• Haniyeh: History will show no mercy for Arab
traitors to Palestine
• Erdogan tells European Union that progress needed on
improving Turkey-EU ties
• One fifth of Yemen’s population suffering from
mental health disorders: UNFPA
--------
Africa
• Israel Approves Plan for Immigration of 2,000 Ethiopian
Jews
• Jordan’s King Abdullah swears in new government led
by Khasawneh to speed reforms
• At least 11 migrants die as boat sinks off Tunisia’s
Sfax
• At least five killed, 16 injured in Algeria gas
blast
--------
North America
• US Launches Airstrikes on Taliban in Afghanistan's
Helmand Despite ‘Peace’ Deal
• Trump administration pushes the US war on Iran into
high gear
• British-born Isis suspects plead not guilty over
deaths of US hostages
• America needs to stop Iranian-controlled militias in
our hemisphere
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/first-hijab-wearing-mayor-london/d/123128
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First Hijab-Wearing Mayor of London, Rakhia Ismail, Quits Labour over Islamophobia, Racism
CHRISTOPHER HAMILL-STEWART
October 12, 2020
Somalian-born Rakhia Ismail has resigned from the
Labour party due to alleged “racism”, “discrimination”, and “white man
opression.”
----
LONDON: The resignation of the UK’s first
hijab-wearing mayor, and her leaving the main opposition Labour Party on
grounds of racism and Islamophobia, highlight the prevalence of anti-Muslim
sentiment across all British political parties, an interfaith expert told Arab
News on Monday.
Rakhia Ismail, who was born in Somalia, left her post
as mayor of the London Borough of Islington late last month, and on Sunday
announced that she would resign from her position as a Labour Party councillor
after eight years in service.
She said she stepped down because she felt she was
marginalized as a woman of color and was not taken seriously by some male
colleagues. She also cited incidents of Islamophobia from some Labour Party
colleagues.
“I’m saddened deeply that the party I thought was for
justice and fairness and ‘for the many’ is the opposite, from my personal experience,”
she said.
“Therefore, I find it hard to represent Holloway Ward
as a Labour councillor because I was battling with a party system that simply
allows white men to have what they want, when they want.”
In 2019, Ismail said she received a letter inviting
her to Labour’s first national women’s conference which, beneath her address,
was printed the word: “Somalia.” She said: “What has my birthplace got to do
with this invite? I was shocked.”
She also cited Islington Council’s failure to organize
an Eid festival in 2019, despite the borough’s significant Muslim population,
as an example of anti-Muslim sentiment within the council.
Muddassar Ahmed, a patron of the Faiths Forum for
London, a group dedicated to fostering interfaith dialogue and relations, said
Ismail’s experience highlights the ongoing issue of Islamophobia in British
politics.
“Sadly, this incident shows that no political party is
totally immune from anti-Muslim sentiment,” he told Arab News.
“The Labour Party has come a very long way in appointing
women of color to senior positions, but clearly there’s more work to be done,”
he said.
“I hope the Labour Party learns from this incident and
ensures that there’s a thorough investigation to understand why this happened.”
A Labour spokesperson said the party “takes any
allegations of discrimination received extremely seriously, which are fully
investigated in line with our rules and procedures.
Ismail’s decision to resign “is disappointing,
especially coming so soon after her term as mayor of Islington, having served
the borough admirably through an incredibly challenging time,” the spokesperson
added.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1747841/world
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UAE’s Mohamed bin Zayed, Israeli PM Netanyahu examine
‘prospects for peace’ in region
12 October 2020
Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed,
received a phone call Monday from the Israeli prime minister
-----
Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al
Nahyan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu examined “prospects for
peace” in the region during a phone call, and discussed bilateral cooperation.
“We discussed strengthening bilateral ties and
examined prospects for peace and the need for stability, cooperation and
development in the region,” the Crown Prince said in a statement on Twitter on
Monday.
Read more: Open for business: How UAE-Israel peace is
driving deals at breakneck speed
Netanyahu said in a tweet Monday that he invited Abu
Dhabi’s Crown Prince to Israel, and the Crown Prince extended a reciprocal
invitation to Abu Dhabi.
In August, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin invited the
Crown Prince to Jerusalem shortly after the announcement of peace between their
two countries.
Israel’s cabinet officially approved the normalization
agreement with the UAE on Monday, Netanyahu said.
“The government today unanimously approved the
historic peace agreements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates,” the
Israeli prime minister said in a tweet.
In the phone call, Netanyahu and the Crown Prince also
expressed their appreciation for the vital role played by the US and President
Donald Trump in reaching a peace accord, according to state news agency WAM.
The discussion came hours after the Crown Prince spoke
with President Trump over the phone on Sunday.
Trump called on the Crown Prince “to seize this
opportunity to urge leaders of other Middle East countries to follow the same
path toward advancing peace and prosperity in the region.”
The American president also thanked the Crown Prince
for leading the Abraham Accords, the landmark normalization agreements between
Israel, the UAE, and Bahrain, which were signed at the White House last month.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2020/10/12/UAE-s-Mohamed-bin-Zayed-Israeli-PM-Netanyahu-examine-prospects-for-peace-in-region
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Mathura Mosque Case: Now an Appeal before a District
Judge against a Civil Court Order for the Removal of Idgah Masjid
Oct 13, 2020
The Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi temple and Shahi Idgah
mosque in Mathura.(PTI PHOTO.)
-----
An appeal has been made before the court of a district
judge, Mathura, against a civil court order of September 30 that dismissed a
legal suit for the removal of Idgah Masjid, which the plaintiffs claim “was
built on the land of Shri Krishna Janambhoomi.”
The district judge’s court has sought the records from
the lower court and has fixed October 16 as the date of hearing, said Hari
Shankar Jain, counsel for the petitioners.
The petitioners, who belong to other districts, had
filed a case seeking removal of the mosque from the site, claiming that it was
built after razing a temple by then Mughal emperor Aurangzeb.
The plaintiffs have sought a declaration that the
land, measuring 13.37 acres, be vested in deity Sri Krishna Virajman.
Earlier, the civil court had dismissed the petition on
September 30, after hearing arguments, said Bhagat Singh Arya, additional
district government counsel.
The suit claiming ownership of the entire land of
13.37 acres land which is believed to be the birthplace of Lord Sri Krishna,
the 8th incarnation of Lord Vishnu, was filed on September 25 through the next
friend of the child deity, one Ranjana Agnihotri, an advocate and a resident of
Lucknow. Six other devotees were also plaintiffs to the suit.
They had sought cancellation of a settlement entered
into between the Shri Krishna Janmasthan Seva Sansthan which is the governing
body of the temple complex and the Committee of Management of Trust of Shahi
Idgah (Idgah Trust) in 1968.
The suit stated that Lord Shri Krishna was born in a
prison of King Kans and the entire area under dispute is known as ‘Katra Keshav
Dev’. Katra Keshav Dev is sacred for the devotees of Lord Shri Krishna and the
Hindu community. Hindu rulers have always paid homage to the birthplace of Lord
Shree Krishna and from time to time they constructed/ renovated temple at the
spot, the petition said.
It was submitted that the Idgah Trust with the help of
some Muslims encroached upon the land belonging to Shri Krishna Janmasthan
Trust and the deity and erected a superstructure at the place.
The birthplace of Lord Krishna lies beneath the
structure raised by the trust, the suit added.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/mathura-mosque-case-now-an-appeal-before-a-district-judge/story-p3QjOHSNrZgFXrOxmePNjP.html
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Taliban Consider Ceasefire their Political Defeat:
Saleh
By Mohammad Arif Sheva
12 Oct 2020
KABUL, Afghanistan – First Vice President Amrullah
Saleh said the Taliban consider the ceasefire a political defeat, believing
they make people thirsty for the grave-kind of peace like the one in 90s by
incalculable killings.
According to Saleh, defeat of the Taliban is
inevitable; because it is not possible to impose their method by force on
people and the pluralistic society of Afghanistan, nor do the Taliban have a
political agenda the people can rely on.
The main reason for increase in the Taliban’s “absurd
and bloody” attacks on Afghan people is the group’s fear and ignorance of
political developments, he said.
Saleh exclaimed the Taliban have underestimated the
national will of the people; launched many attacks with a misconception of the
peace process.
In many parts of Afghanistan, where violence has
increased, the Taliban faced resistance by locals, Saleh said. Therefore, the
Taliban will not reap any strategic or political benefits from the bloodshed;
because violence as a political tool is hated and rejected.
Unfortunately, we will experience another phase of the
crisis to break this mentality that is based on murder, he further said.
According to Saleh, the Taliban’s claim is
unattractive and all their attention and investment is to keeping the society
in darkness and ignorance so they can secure their proxy rule.
“The society has never shed tears for the death of any
Talib and will never do so,” he said. “A Talib himself has never cried for his
own death and will not shed tears, because the string of emotions in this group
[Taliban] is neutral and suffocated.”
Saleh is known for his tough stance against the
Taliban insurgents, as he has a several times escaped deadly attack by the
group.
https://www.khaama.com/taliban-consider-ceasefire-their-political-defeat-saleh-75532/
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Pakistan Complies With Just two Of 40 FATF Directives
Oct 13, 2020
NEW DELHI: Taking note of the fact that Pakistan has
improved its full compliance on only two of the 40 FATF recommendations to curb
terror financing and money laundering, a regional affiliate of the financial
watchdog has retained the country on its ‘Enhanced Follow-up’ list, according
to Pakistani media reports.
A report in Dawn News on Monday said the first
Follow-Up Report on Mutual Evaluation of Pakistan released by the Asia-Pacific
Group (APG) underlined that the country’s progress on the 40 FATF
recommendations on the effectiveness of anti-money laundering and combating
financing terror (AML/CFT) system largely remained unchanged — non-compliant on
four counts, partially compliant on 25 counts and largely compliant on nine
recommendations.
The APG report noted that Pakistan’s measures against
money laundering and terror financing “is not yet sufficient to justify a
re-rating”.
The APG’s report came ahead of the virtual FATF
plenary scheduled for October 21-23 during which it would be decided if
Pakistan should be excluded from its grey list, based on a review of
Islamabad’s performance to meet global commitments and standards on fight
against money laundering and terror financing. India has repeatedly stated that
Pakistan has done nothing to check cross-border terrorism.
FATF had placed Pakistan on its grey list in June 2018
and asked Islamabad to implement a plan of action by the end of 2019 but the
deadline was extended later on due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/pakistan-complies-with-just-2-of-40-fatf-directives/articleshow/78630223.cms
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Datuk Keramat: Penang Will Not Demolish Non-Muslim
Places Of Worship Indiscriminately
13 Oct 2020
BY OPALYN MOK
GEORGE TOWN, Oct 13 — The Penang state government will
not indiscriminately demolish any illegal non-Muslim places of worship (RIBI),
said state exco Jagdeep Singh Deo (DAP ― Datuk Keramat) at the state
legislative assembly.
He said there is a state RIBI committee to look into
issues related to RIBI.
The Local Government, Housing Development and Town and
Country Planning Committee chairman said any enforcement action against RIBI
can only be conducted after a decision is made by the state Land Committee based
on consultation with the RIBI committee.
“The RIBI committee will then scrutinise the issue
with related technical agencies and the assemblyman of the area,” he said in
reply to a question by Gooi Zi Sen (DAP ― Pengkalan Kota).
Gooi had asked if the state has a procedure to prevent
RIBI being indiscriminately demolished such as what happened in Kedah.
Jagdeep said the procedure to refer all cases
involving RIBI to the committee was in place since 2019 and was to avoid
indiscriminate demolition of RIBI due to the sensitivity of the issue.
Then Opposition assemblyman Mohd Yusni Mat Piah (PAS -
Penaga) pointed out that there were 69 “haram” (illegal) RIBI in the state.
“What are the steps that the state took to ensure
these places adhere to the local bylaws?” he asked.
Backbencher M. Satees (DAP ― Bagan Dalam) immediately
objected to the term “haram” being used to refer to places of worship.
Jagdeep agreed with Satees that the term “haram” was
inappropriate to be used for RIBI before assuring Yusni that the authorities
will take action to ensure that all RIBI comply with local bylaws.
“This is a sensitive issue as it involves various
religious sensitivities so there are other ways to manage this such as
referring to the RIBI committee for resolution,” he said.
He added that the RIBI committee has a land bank for
RIBI contributed by developers and this land bank could be used to relocate
RIBI that were built without permits on state lands.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/10/13/exco-penang-will-not-demolish-non-muslim-places-of-worship-indiscriminately/1912237
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Europe
UK terrorist watched Daesh videos in jail before
trying to kill guard
October 09, 2020
LONDON: A convicted terrorist in the UK who tried to
hack a prison guard to death watched and transcribed smuggled extremist
propaganda videos in the months leading up to the attack.
Brusthom Ziamani, 25, wore a fake suicide vest and
used a makeshift knife during the attack on a prison guard in January this
year.
He admitted to obtaining a memory card while in prison
that had Daesh propaganda videos on it.
Ziamani was already serving a 19-year sentence for
plotting to behead a soldier in 2015, and was on Thursday sentenced to life
with a minimum of 21 years for the January attack and for obtaining extremist
material.
Investigators found a four-page “martyrdom note” in
his pocket, which featured comments from Daesh propaganda videos, after he was
restrained following the attack.
He had used his cell’s DVD player to watch smuggled
propaganda videos, and had transcribed at least one lecture by an Al-Qaeda
preacher while in jail.
The Times newspaper reported that Ziamani had
previously plotted to kill non-Muslims while in jail.
He is said to have converted to Islam after a youth
spent as a practicing Jehovah’s Witness, and was radicalized following a stint
committing violent robberies as part of a London gang.
According to The Times, a former inmate that
encountered Ziamani in jail said he “knew everybody. They all loved him. He was
like a hero to everybody: the drug-dealers, the murderers, the gang-members,
the robbers, the thieves. He had charm.”
Ziamani is said to have presided over “Shariah courts”
within the prison, and at one point ruled that two young Muslim inmates should
be punished with beating for drinking alcohol.
His case is likely to further fuel concern that the
UK’s prisons serve as a hotbed of radicalization and extremism.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1746556/world
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Bin Laden’s former spokesman bound for Britain after
US release
October 12, 2020
LONDON: Osama bin Laden’s former spokesman is due to
return to the UK after being released early from prison in the US.
Adel Abdel Bary, 60, was convicted of terror offenses
for his role in Al-Qaeda’s 1998 attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania
that killed 224 people.
He was responsible for transmitting Al-Qaeda’s claims
of responsibility for the attacks to the media, and for disseminating threats
of further violence against US citizens.
Abdel Bary was arrested a year after the 1998 attacks
and extradited to the US after a protracted legal battle.
As part of a plea deal, he admitted to three charges,
including conspiracy to murder US citizens abroad, and was sentenced to 25
years behind bars. Consideration was made for the 16 years he had already spent
in custody.
The Times reported that Abdel Bary, who is asthmatic
and obese, was released weeks early on compassionate grounds due to the high
risks posed to him by COVID-19.
The Egyptian-born terrorist operated from a base in
London, where he claimed asylum. He became head of the London cell of an
Egyptian terrorist organization before it merged with Al-Qaeda in 1998.
While working for Al-Qaeda, he spread propaganda on
its behalf, assisted with recruitment and provision of funds, and provided
cover and support for its military activities.
The UK government is urgently reviewing Abdel Bary’s
situation, and sources told The Times that he would be placed under priority
investigation.
“This is not someone who will simply just be walking
the streets of Britain again. We are very alive to the risk involved in his
potential return,” a government source said.
He will be surveilled by the state for connections
with former colleagues or other suspicious activities.
It is understood that he will not be deported from the
US until the UK has adequately prepared for his arrival.
Abdel Bary’s son, Abdel-Majed Abdel, was arrested in
Spain this year, having joined Daesh in Syria in 2013 and gaining notoriety for
posing online with the severed head of a Syrian regime soldier.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1747856/world
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Tension between Turkey and Greece rise in crisis over
eastern Mediterranean
13 October 2020
A Turkish ship set sail on Monday to carry out seismic
surveys in the eastern Mediterranean, prompting Greece to issue a furious new
demand for European Union sanctions on Ankara in a row over offshore
exploration rights.
France expressed its concern after the Turkish vessel,
the Oruc Reis, began its voyage. It said Turkey must stick to commitments it
has made in the dispute, refrain from provocative actions and show good faith.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
Greece’s foreign ministry described the new voyage as
a “major escalation” and a “direct threat to peace in the region”. Turkey,
meanwhile, accused Athens of fueling tensions.
The Oruc Reis intends to carry out work south of the
Greek island of Kastellorizo, which is close to Turkey’s coast.
Ankara had withdrawn the vessel from contested waters
in the eastern Mediterranean last month to “allow for diplomacy” before an EU
summit at which Cyprus sought sanctions against Turkey.
“Turkey has proven it lacks credibility. All those who
believed Turkey meant all it said before the European summit of Oct. 1-2 now
stand corrected,” Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas said on Monday.
At the summit, the EU said it would punish Turkey if
it continued operations in the region and that sanctions could be imposed as
soon as December.
Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said Greece had no right to
oppose its operations, which were 15 km (9.3 miles) from Turkey and 425 km from
the Greek mainland.
Defense Minister Hulusi Akar also said that Ankara’s
operations were within its continental shelf and it expected Greece to refrain
from steps escalating tensions.
Navy escort
“They are doing everything to escalate tensions,” Akar
said. “The Navy will provide the necessary escort and protection to our vessels
as needed.”
Energy Minister Fatih Donmez wrote on Twitter that
Turkey would “continue to explore, dig and protect our rights”.
Relations between Greece and Turkey are complicated by
a range of disputes, from jurisdiction in the Mediterranean to ethnically split
Cyprus.
Greek government spokesman Petsas said Turkey had done
the opposite of what it should have and the EU did not need to wait two months
before taking action.
“So the only issue here is to activate more drastic
solutions, for Turkey to feel more stick and less carrot this time,” Petsas
said.
French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der
Muhll said in Paris: “We expect Turkey to meet its commitments, abstain from
new provocations and show concrete evidence of good faith.”
In a phone call on Monday, Turkish President Tayyip
Erdogan told European Council President Charles Michel that progress was needed
to improve ties between Ankara and the bloc.
“President Erdogan, who stated that Greece was
continuing steps to escalate tensions in the eastern Mediterranean despite
Turkey’s well-intentioned approach, said he expected concrete steps from the EU
to realize an Eastern Mediterranean conference proposed by Turkey,” the Turkish
presidency said in a statement.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/10/13/Tension-between-Turkey-and-Greece-rise-in-crisis-over-eastern-Mediterranean
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Incumbent president, Turkey-backed premier to vie in
Northern Cyprus runoff
12 October 2020
Incumbent President Mustafa Akinci and Ankara-backed
Prime Minister Ersin Tatar will go to a presidential run-off in the
self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus following an election
Sunday.
Northern Cyprus will hold a runoff to select a
president as no one of the 11 candidates who contested in Sunday’s vote won a
clear majority.
According to the election council, Tartar won 32
percent of the Sunday’s elections ahead of Akinci, a supporter of the
reunification of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, who netted almost 30
percent. The two will compete in a runoff on October 18.
Akinci is tipped to overcome his 60-year-old
challenger Tartar, who supports separate sovereign administrations in Cyprus,
with the backing of Tufan Erhurman who won 21 percent in the vote.
"Akinci will probably win the second round with
more than 55 percent," Mine Yucel, the head of Prologue Consulting which
specializes in polling, said.
The presidential vote in the breakaway Northern Cyprus
was held amid precautions against the spread of the new coronavirus.
It also took place three days after Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced alongside Tatar the partial reopening of
Varosha, a beachfront resort abandoned for 46 years.
The move drew condemnation from Akinci and other
candidates, who saw it as Turkish interference in the election, and sparked
protests in the majority Greek-speaking Republic of Cyprus.
It was also decried by the Republic of Cyprus, the
European Union and the United Nations.
The island has been divided into Turkish
Cypriot-controlled northern and Greek Cypriot-controlled southern territories
since a brief war in 1974, which saw Turkey intervene militarily in response to
a military coup backed by Athens to annex Cyprus to Greece.
Greek Cypriots run the island’s internationally
recognized government, while Turkish Cypriots have a breakaway state in the
north and say offshore resources belong to them too.
The latest United Nations-backed peace negotiations
failed in 2017 and there has been no progress in talks since.
The election may also influence talks between Turkey
and Greece over their contested maritime claims in the eastern Mediterranean.
Turkey and Greece, both of them NATO members, have
been at loggerheads over oil and gas exploration rights in the eastern
Mediterranean.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/12/636191/Cyprus-Akinci-Tatar-runoff
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Germany reiterates full commitment to Iran nuclear
deal, regrets US withdrawal
12 October 2020
Germany has reiterated its full commitment to a
multilateral nuclear agreement signed between Iran and major world powers in
2015, saying the United States’ move to pull out of the agreement is
"regrettable."
In a post on its Twitter page on Monday, Germany’s
mission to the United Nations said Berlin “remains fully committed to
preservation & full implementation” of the nuclear deal, officially known
as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and UN Security Council
Resolution 2231, which endorses the accord.
Germany remains fully committed to preservation &
full implementation of #UNSC Res. 2231, incl. #JCPoA.
While US withdrawal from JCPoA & its re-imposed
sanctions are regrettable, 🇩🇪
is deeply concerned over measures by Iran contrary to key nuclear-related
provisions in JCPoA. pic.twitter.com/jJBwTyghmn
— German Mission to UN (@GermanyUN) October 12, 2020
It added that the US “withdrawal from the “JCPOA &
its re-imposed sanctions [against Iran] are regrettable.”
The mission further expressed Germany's concern about
measures by Iran "contrary to key nuclear-related provisions in
JCPOA," referring to Tehran's suspension of some of its commitments under
the deal, in response to the failure of the other signatories to live up to
their obligations stipulated in the accord.
US President Donald Trump, a hawkish critic of the
landmark nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers – the United States,
Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany -- unilaterally withdrew Washington
from the agreement in May 2018, and unleashed the “toughest ever” sanctions
against the Islamic Republic in defiance of global criticism.
Following its much-criticized exit, Washington has
been attempting to prevent the remaining signatories from abiding by their
commitments and thus kill the historic agreement, which is widely viewed as a
fruit of international diplomacy.
Iran remained fully compliant with the JCPOA for an
entire year, waiting for the co-signatories to fulfill their end of the bargain
by offsetting the impacts of American bans on the Iranian economy.
But as the European parties failed to do so, the
Islamic Republic moved in May 2019 to suspend its JCPOA commitments under
Articles 26 and 36 of the deal covering Tehran’s legal rights.
Iran took five steps in scaling back its obligations,
among them abandoning operational limitations on its nuclear industry,
including with regard to the capacity and level of uranium enrichment.
All those measures were adopted after informing the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) beforehand, with the agency's
inspectors present on the ground in Iran.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/12/636250/Germany-JCPOA-UN-mission-US-withdrawal-tweet
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Arab World
Hezbollah official calls on Lebanon army to do more in
Shia stronghold amid violence
Jacob Boswall
12 October 2020
A Hezbollah official has called for a stronger
presence from the Lebanese army in the Shia group’s stronghold of
Baalbek-Hermel, near the border with Syria, after several days of clashes
between local clans.
“The security situation in the Bekaa governorate and
especially in Baalbek-Hermel is the responsibility of the state’s security agencies
… who must do their job better and with greater regularity,” former Lebanese
minister Hussein Hajj Hassan told local media at a press conference Sunday.
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channel online or via the app.
Last week, members of two rival clans in the town
circulated images and videos of their heavy arsenals of weaponry, including
RPGs.
The Chamass and Jaafar clans’ parade of military
strength came after four members of the Jaafar clan killed a member of the
former family the previous week, provoking a series of retaliatory attacks.
The two warring clans have a long history of animosity
and competition in the lawless region around the historic town of Baalbek.
Speaking alongside Baalbek’s mayor, Hajj Hussein
emphasized that increased military action would be needed to ensure the
governorate’s stability.
“The role that the security apparatus is currently
taking on in Baalbek-Hermel is minimal when it is compared to the scale of the
security problem,” he explained.
The former agriculture minister added that politics
should be removed from the equation when it comes to security issues.
“We say to the security forces: do your part, and in
politics, we receive all the space we want.”
Critics have called on Hezbollah to do more in the
area, where it has significant influence. Baalbek-Hermel residents have long
complained of negligence from the state in an area with little resources in
agriculture, education, and healthcare.
The cultivation of cannabis has been a leading source
of income for residents. Growing marijuana for medical use was approved by
Lebanese lawmakers recently; however, disagreements remain over whether the
sector should be state-run or privatized.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has advocated for it to
be state-run. The Shia sect has a leading role in the state-run tobacco
company, and opposition lawmakers fear similar corruption in any future
cannabis sector.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/10/12/Hezbollah-official-calls-on-Lebanon-army-to-do-more-in-Shia-stronghold-amid-violence-
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Lebanon alters delegation for US-led talks with Israel
after Hezbollah backlash
Joseph Haboush
12 October 2020
Lebanon announced its delegation Monday that will take
part in US-led talks with Israel later this week to negotiate Beirut and Tel
Aviv’s maritime borders, but removed a Foreign Ministry official after pressure
from Hezbollah.
After the initial draft of names was revealed to Al
Arabiya English last week, Hezbollah and pro-Hezbollah media outlets quickly
criticized the inclusion of Lebanese diplomat, Hadi Hashem.
For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
The Iran-backed militant group has been the main
obstacle to moving forward with any direct or indirect talks over disputed
borders. But after softening its stance amid an aggressive sanctions program by
Washington, Lebanon quickly announced an agreement, on Oct. 1, on the framework
for beginning indirect talks with Israel.
An official Lebanese source told Al Arabiya English
last week that representing the Lebanese army and heading the delegation would
be Brig. Gen. Bassam Yassine. Col. Mazen Basbous, from the navy, was also to be
present alongside Wissam Chbat, the head of the Lebanese Petroleum Administration
(LPA). Maritime affairs expert Najib Masihi and Hadi Hashem, a senior official
from Foreign Ministry, were also on the list.
But after an aggressive media campaign, the list of
names announced Monday excluded Hashem, the diplomat. Hezbollah said any diplomatic
representation would insinuate a political aspect to the talks, rather than
strictly talks on the maritime borders.
Shortly after the Lebanese presidency announced the
names, the office of caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab took a jab at the
president, saying the names had not been consulted with the premier.
According to political analysts, although the talks
appear likely to go ahead, the public disagreement weakens Lebanon’s position
going into the negotiations.
On the Israeli side, Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz
will head the delegation. Ehud (Udi) Adiri, director-general of the Energy
Ministry, Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister Reuven Azar, and Brig.
Gen. Oren Setter from the army will also attend.
As for the US delegation, Assistant Secretary of State
David Schenker is expected to land in Beirut on Monday night. A statement from
the State Department said UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jan Kubis and
Schenker would facilitate the opening session of the negotiations. Schenker will
be joined by Ambassador John Desrocher, “who will serve as the US mediator for
these negotiations.”
Desrocher is the US Ambassador to Algeria. Before his
time as ambassador, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Egypt
and Maghreb Affairs. He also spent time at the US Embassy in Baghdad.
“As announced on October 1, the framework agreement to
commence discussions on the maritime boundary is a vital step forward that
offers the potential to yield greater stability, security, and prosperity for Lebanese
and Israeli citizens alike,” the State Department said.
The specific dispute on the maritime border is almost
a decade old. US diplomat Frederick Hoff went to Beirut in 2011 in an effort to
reach a solution after potential offshore oil, and natural gas reserves were
discovered.
Hoff came up with what became known as the “Hoff
Line,” which would have seen Lebanon get around 550 sq. km. out of the 860 sq.
km. that is disputed.
Succeeding Hoff was Amos Hochstein, who was unable to
make any notable progress.
The issue sat on the back burner for years until US
President Donald Trump was elected and dispatched then-Secretary of State
Rex Tillerson to have a go at getting Lebanon and
Israel to reach a deal.
Tillerson’s efforts, like his tenure as the top US
diplomat, were short-lived.
Nevertheless, Washington continued hammering away over
the years, and Ambassador David Satterfield was handed the file.
Familiar with both countries and their officials,
Satterfield spent significant time flying between Beirut, Washington and Tel
Aviv mediating.
Before being appointed as the ambassador to Turkey,
Satterfield made notable progress and laid down the initial text between
Lebanon and Israel. His efforts were close to succeeding before his time ran
out as acting assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, since
2017.
Schenker was able to push the final agreement forward
in recent weeks but was quick to point out that the talks had nothing to do
with normalization.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/10/12/Lebanon-alters-delegation-for-US-led-talks-with-Israel-after-Hezbollah-backlash
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Official UAE Delegation Trip to Israel Set for October
20: Source
Emily Judd
12 October 2020
An official UAE delegation trip to Israel is being
planned for October 20, an Emirati source told Al Arabiya English on Tuesday.
An Israeli delegation already visited the UAE’s
capital city Abu Dhabi on August 31, taking the first direct flight in history
from Israel to the UAE.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday
that he invited Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to
Israel, and that the Crown Prince had extended a reciprocal invitation to the
UAE capital.
The invitations were expressed during a phone call in
which the two leaders discussed strengthening bilateral ties call and examined
“prospects for peace” in the region.
The Israeli government officially approved the
normalization agreement with the UAE on Monday. The plans for normalization
were first announced on August 13 and culminated in a signing ceremony at the
White House in Washington last month.
Israelis in the government and finance sectors have
traveled to the UAE over the past two months to meet with their Emirati
counterparts to set up collaboration.
The first visit to the UAE following the announcement
by an Israeli official was the head of Israel’s foreign intelligence service
Mossad, Yossi Cohen, on August 18. Cohen met with the UAE’s national security
adviser.
Israeli National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat
then followed, arriving on a flight with American and Israeli officials, on
August 31.
Ben-Shabbat met with the UAE’s Minister of State for
Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash.
The first official Israeli trade delegation arrived in
the UAE on September 8, including the CEO of the biggest bank in Israel.
Dov Kotler, the head of Bank Hapoalim, landed in Dubai
and meet with government officials and the heads of the largest banks in the
UAE.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/10/12/Official-UAE-delegation-trip-to-Israel-being-planned-for-end-of-October-Source
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Lebanon’s ex-PM Hariri to meet parties over French
rescue plan
12 October 2020
Lebanon’s Saad Hariri, a former prime minister seeking
a new term, said Monday he would meet all key parties to survey their
commitment to a French rescue plan.
The country is bankrupt, but the ruling elite has so
far failed to respond to calls by French President Emmanuel Macron for the
rapid formation of an independent government.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
Hariri, himself one of Lebanon’s hereditary political
barons, stepped down from the position of prime minister a year ago under
pressure from a massive protest movement calling for an end to sectarian-based
politics.
“I will send a delegation to talk with all the main
political blocs, to ensure that they are still fully committed” to Macron’s
initiative, Hariri said, after meeting President Michel Aoun.
Macron visited Lebanon two days after the August 4
Beirut port explosion that disfigured the city, and returned three weeks later
to check on the status of reforms he conditioned international support on.
The roadmap Macron laid out for debt-ridden Lebanon
included a two-week deadline for the formation of a tighter and independent
government of experts, that would only stay in office a few months.
A new prime minister, Mustapha Adib, was designated –
but he threw in the towel after meeting resistance from the top Shia parties
that sought guarantees they would retain the finance ministry.
Hariri, who has already served two terms as Lebanese
premier and has close ties with France, has since resurfaced as the most likely
candidate to take over.
“I am convinced that President Macron’s initiative is the
only and last remaining opportunity for our country to stop the collapse and
rebuild Beirut,” Hariri said, according to a statement from his office.
Hariri on Thursday said he was a possible candidate to
head a new government to stem the country’s economic collapse.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/10/12/Lebanon-s-ex-PM-Hariri-to-meet-parties-over-French-rescue-plan
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‘We have to remain because one day we may finally
disappear’: Jewish Egyptians
Ismaeel Naar
10 October 2020
“In the Jewish sect, in 1945 no one could imagine that
in 1948 there would be a war and Jews would emigrate. It was impossible to
think, even after what the Muslim Brotherhood did, no one thought they would
leave the country,” says Albert Arie, the oldest living Egyptian Jewish
citizen.
Arie, one of the only remaining Jewish men still
living in Egypt, was speaking to Al Arabiya as part of a special documentary on
the lives of Jewish Egyptian citizens.
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channel online or via the app.
“They would ride the train and stand by the iron doors
at 10 a.m. so they could be there in Jerusalem by noon. They knew and saw that
nothing would ever force them to leave Egypt,” he added.
Arie is one of the surviving Jewish Egyptians who
still remembers the days of the Arab-Israeli conflict of the 1960s, given that
he was born on June 25, 1930. The 90-year-old told Al Arabiya that the
dwindling number of Jewish Egyptians began in 1948 and would go on through four
stages.
“There were stages, in 1948, second in 1956, and then
in 1961, and 1967 the tripartite aggression. These stages represented the
elimination of the Jewish sect in Egypt,” he said.
The Jewish community of Egypt has struggled to keep
the faith alive and maintain its culture after its numbers dwindled to a few
dozen members in recent years from some 80,000 in the 1950s.
Most Jews fled Egypt due to attacks on the community
during and after the 1956 war, when Israel invaded the Sinai Peninsula along
with Britain and France in an attempt to regain control of the Suez Canal.
The exodus began after the establishment of the State
of Israel in 1948 and the first war between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Jews
were also prominent in the Egyptian Communist Party which was outlawed under
President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1958.
Arie was one of three prominent Jews from Egypt who
joined the national movement against British colonialism and refused to
immigrate to Israel, and they merged with their new families in Egyptian
society. The other two veteran figures being the two lawyers Youssef Darwish
(who died in 2006) and the other being Shehata Haroun who passed away in 2001.
He is the grandfather of Magda Haroun, the current president of the Egyptian
Jewish Community.
“To commence prayer inside the synagogue under the
Jewish faith requires a quorum of ten men. Because men are guardians of women
even in the Jewish religion. So, women can’t be the majority, there has to be
10 men minimum,” Haroun said during her appearance in the documentary,
explaining the history of synagogues in Egypt, especially those found in the
historic Jewish Quarters in Cairo.
“We unfortunately don’t have the men so… if these
women enter one day and prayed, as I said earlier, I don’t know the Jewish
prayers. Our numbers are few and one day our presence will no longer exist in
Egypt. But we have to keep and maintain these things,” she said.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2020/10/11/-We-have-to-remain-because-one-day-we-may-finally-disappear-Jewish-Egyptians
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World must press Saudi to implement IAEA Safeguards:
Iran's envoy
13 October 2020
Iran has called on the international community to
press Saudi Arabia to immediately implement the Comprehensive Safeguards
Agreements of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in full.
Heidar Ali Balouji, Iran’s permanent envoy to the
United Nations General Assembly First Committee (also known as the Disarmament
and International Security Committee), said Riyadh’s failure to implement the
IAEA safeguards regime comes as the Arab country’s ambitious program allows it
to hide some of its nuclear activities and not be inspected by the IAEA.
“Concerns about Saudi Arabia’s leaked nuclear
activities and identification of its nuclear sites hidden in desert require
international collective efforts, so much so that Saudi Arabia be held
accountable for the consequences of its behaviors,” he added.
Balouji said a “steady” rather than “selective”
implementation of the Safeguards will serve the international community in the
long run.”
“The international community must ask Riyadh to
immediately implement the Comprehensive Safeguards Agreements in full.”
He said a cessation of international nuclear
assistance for Saudis would be the only way to allay these concerns.
“This lack of transparency in Saudi Arabia’s
activities definitely violates the entire Safeguards regime,” he added.
Saudi Arabia’s clandestine nuclear program, which had
been revealed by whistle-blowers, was recently confirmed by satellite images
showing a large compound, in a suspicious location in the middle of the desert,
a checkpoint, towering security fences, a big building about 150 feet on a side
and pools for the collection of uranium waste; a typical blueprint for
yellow-cake mills.
The Wall Street Journal uncovered the facility
constructed in a remote area in Saudi Arabia for extracting uranium yellow-cake
from uranium ore. Ironically, the facility is located near a solar-panel
production area.
Observers say such undeclared nuclear capabilities in
the hands of the KSA are extremely worrying, in light of the abysmal Saudi
human rights record, and that the last thing anyone would wish for is a nuclear
armed KSA.
Western officials are now anxious about an unusual
facility located near al-Ula, a small city in the Saudi northwest desert near a
solar-panel production area.
Last month, the Guardian revealed that Saudi Arabia
may be in possession of enough mineable uranium ore to produce nuclear fuel.
According to confidential documents prepared by
Chinese geologists for the kingdom and seen by the Guardian, Riyadh now
possesses so much uranium ore reserves that it can start domestic production of
nuclear fuel.
The Chinese geologists have been reportedly rushing to
help Riyadh map its uranium reserves at breakneck speed as part of their
nuclear energy cooperation agreement.
The geologists identified reserves that would be able
to produce more than 90,000 tons of uranium from three “major deposits” in the
center and northwest of the country, the report said.
The documents have been prepared by the Beijing
Research Institute of Uranium Geology (BRIUG) and China National Nuclear
Corporation (CNNC), working with the Saudi Geological Survey.
The disclosure will intensify concerns about Saudi
Arabia’s interest in an atomic weapons program.
Experts warn that if Saudi Arabia is able to mine
sufficient uranium domestically, rather than relying on foreign providers, it
could give the kingdom a boost toward creating its own weapons program.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/13/636266/Saudi-iaea-safeguards-regime-clandestine-program
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Iraqi militias say they have halted anti-U.S. attacks
OCTOBER 11, 2020
By John Davison
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An array of Iran-backed Iraqi
militia groups have suspended rocket attacks on U.S. forces on condition that
Iraq’s government present a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops,
one of the groups said on Sunday.
A spokesman for Kataib Hezbollah, one of the most
powerful Iran-backed militia groups in Iraq, said the groups were presenting no
set deadline, but that if U.S. troops “insisted on staying” they would unleash
much more violent attacks.
Washington, which is slowly reducing its 5,000 troops
in Iraq, threatened last month to shut its embassy unless the Iraqi government
reins in Iran-aligned militias that have attacked U.S. interests with rockets
and roadside bombs.
The U.S. warning caused alarm in Iraq, where it was
seen as a step towards air strikes, potentially turning Iraq into a
battleground in a proxy war between the United States and Iran. A broad array
of politicians called on the militia to stop provoking the Americans.
“The factions have presented a conditional ceasefire,”
Kataib Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Mohi told Reuters. “It includes all
factions of the (anti-U.S.) resistance, including those who have been targeting
U.S. forces.”
On Saturday, militia groups calling themselves the
“Iraqi Resistance Coordination Commission” published a statement suggesting
they would suspend attacks in return for a clear plan for U.S. troops to leave.
Mohi did not specify which groups had drafted the statement.
He said the Iraqi government must implement a
parliamentary resolution in January calling for foreign troops to withdraw.
ROADSIDE BLAST
Iraq is one of the few countries with close ties to
both the United States and Iran, both of which provided military support to
help defeat Islamic State fighters, who were beaten back in a three-year war
after seizing a third of Iraq in 2014.
Iraqis have long feared their country could become a
proxy battleground, especially since Washington killed Tehran’s military
mastermind Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike at Baghdad airport in January.
Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, an Iraqi leader of pro-Iran
militias, was also killed. Factions that Soleimani and Muhandis commanded,
including Kataib Hezbollah, swore to avenge them.
But pro-Iran militias have faced a popular backlash
from Iraqis who accuse them of putting the country’s security at risk by
attacking the Americans.
Mohi said there was no deadline for the government to
expel foreign troops, but “if America insists on staying and doesn’t respect
the parliament’s decision then the factions will use all the weapons at their
disposal”.
He said rockets fired at U.S. forces and diplomatic
compounds were a message, and worse attacks could follow.
U.S. officials blame Kataib Hezbollah for dozens of
rocket attacks against U.S. installations in Iraq.
Kataib Hezbollah denies involvement, and some attacks
have been claimed by smaller, little-known militias, though Iraqi officials
believe these may be fronts for bigger groups.
A roadside blast hit a convoy in southern Iraq on
Sunday delivering equipment to the U.S.-led military coalition in the country,
damaging a tyre but causing no casualties, the military said. There was no
claim of responsibility.
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-iraq-militias/iraqi-militias-say-they-have-halted-anti-us-attacks-idUSKBN26W0IT?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1604119_
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India
Muslim Clerics Oppose Assam Government’s Decision To
Close Down State-Run Madrasas
Hemanta Kumar Nath
October 12, 2020
Muslim clerics in Assam have strongly opposed the
state government’s decision to close down all state-run Madrasas. Urging the
state government to think twice about its decision, the clerics said that
general education is provided along with religious education in the Madrasas.
“The Madrasas are Running in Assam since before the
independence of the country. Lakhs of students have enrolled in the Madrasas
and many have already passed. If the government will close down the Madrasas,
then these students' life will be spoiled. Hence, we request the government not
to do it. If any change is needed in the syllabus, do it. Along with religious
education, general education has also been taught there,” Imam Mofidul Islam
said.
Recently, Assam Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma
announced that the state government will close down all government-run Madrasas
and Sanskrit tols (schools) in the state by November this year.
The state government will issue two separate
notifications for Madrasas and Sanskrit tols soon.
Himanta Biswa Sarma had also said that public money
"can’t be allowed to be spent on religious education".
“Our stand is clear. We had earlier announced in the
assembly about our government’s policy. Government will not allow any religious
educational institution to function with government fund. But, we have nothing
to say about privately-run Madrasas. The government has no issue with normal
Madrasas which are being run by individuals or organisations, [and] NGOs,” Himanta
Biswa Sarma said.
The education minister also said that functioning of
Sanskrit tols is not transparent.
“We will also take a decision over Sanskrit tols, But,
tols and Madrasas are different and the state government will issue two
separate notifications in this regard,” Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
Md. Hasan Ali, a retired official of Assam Madrasa
Board, said that he strongly opposes the state government’s decision to close
down state-run Madrasas in the state.
Meanwhile, state's secondary education Department has
recently sent a letter to the director of secondary education and stated that
148 Madrasa contractual teachers may be shifted to schools under general
secondary education.
Assam has 614 government-run Madrasas including 57 for
girls, three for boys and 554 co-educational, while 17 are Urdu medium. The
state has over 500 recognised Sanskrit tols.
In February this year, the state government had issued
an order to eliminate the Arabic term ‘Maktab’ from the government schools.
In Arabic, Maktab means school and there were 63
government-run schools in Assam that used the Arabic term ‘Maktab’.
https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/assam-government-decision-close-down-state-run-madrasas-1730884-2020-10-12
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Farooq Abdullah never said Article 370 will be
restored with China’s help, clarifies National Conference
Edited by: Amit Chaturvedi
Oct 13, 2020
The National Conference (NC) has rubbished reports
that its patron Farooq Abdullah said that Article 370 of the Constitution will
be restored in the Kashmir Valley with China’s help. Abdullah made the remarks
during a television interview.
The NC said that its leader’s comments were twisted.
It said that Abdullah never justified the expansionist or aggressive intention,
what is being claimed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“Our patron was highlighting the anger of the people
because of the abrogation of Article 370 last year. He has been doing that the
past month. He said that nobody is ready to accept these changes in Jammu and
Kashmir,” a spokesperson of the NC said, according to Hindustan Times’ Hindi
language publication Hindustan.
“Our leader never said that Article 370 will be
restored with the help of China, which was claimed by BJP leader Shambit Patra
at a press conference. He also presented some earlier statements of Mr Farooq
Abdullah in a wrong manner,” Hindustan further quoted the spokesperson as
saying.
Abdullah said in a television interview on Sunday he
wished that with China’s support, Article 370 of the Constitution, which
conferred special status on Jammu and Kashmir, will be restored.
In the interview, Abdullah noted that China was not
happy with the nullification of Article 370, which was scrapped in August last
year by Parliament.
“As far as China is concerned, I didn’t bring {the}
Chinese president here. Our Prime Minister invited him to Gujarat and even did
jhoola sawari with him. He [PM Modi] even took him to Chennai and had food with
him,” he had said.
The former chief minister of J&K said that China
“never accepted” the nullification of Article 370. “They said till you restore
Article 370, we won’t stop because it has now become an open issue,” he said.
“May Allah wish that our people get help from their
might and our Articles 370 and 35-A get restored,” Abdullah said.
The BJP termed the comments “seditious”. “It is
saddening as well as worrying. A sitting MP is using such words for the
country. He thinks that China’s aggression is because abrogation of Article 370
has happened. He categorically states that since Indian Parliament abrogated
Article 370, China is disturbed and that is why China’s aggression is
justified. He seems to justify the expansionist tendencies of China,” BJP
leader Sambit Patra said on Monday.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/farooq-abdullah-never-said-article-370-will-be-restored-with-china-s-help-clarifies-national-conference/story-LtEekST6Km1b4fEOrwMfdM.html
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BJP calls Farooq’s Art 370 remark ‘seditious’, says it
compromises country’s sovereignty
Oct 13, 2020
NEW DELHI/SRINAGAR: BJP sharply criticised former
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah for holding the decision to
nullify Article 370 as responsible for Chinese aggression and suggesting it can
be restored with Beijing's help as seditious and going against the unity and
integrity of India.
"It is very objectionable that a sitting MP is
speaking about the restoration of Article 370 with the help of China. Farooq
Abdullah said that abrogation of Article 370 disturbed China and tried to
justify China's expansionist thought,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said at a
press conference. He said this is not the first time that Abdullah had made
such a statement. "Compromising or making statements on the country's
sovereignty, unity and integrity is very sad and against the nation.”
The BJP member said, "Both Rahul Gandhi and
Farooq Abdullah are two sides of the same coin. This is the same Rahul Gandhi,
who a few days ago said that the PM has gone into hiding, it is Congress that
said that India has surrendered.”
"Now, Congress has started speaking in support of
China while giving statements against Modi. Both Farooq Abdullah and Congress
keep politics ahead and the country behind," Patra added.
He said on September 24, Abdullah said that if you go
to Jammu and Kashmir and ask people if they are Indians, then they would say
that they are not. “In the same statement, he also said that it would be good
if we could join China,” the BJP spokesperson said.
In his comments to a news channel, Abdullah said China
"never accepted" the nullification of Article 370, and hoped that it
will be restored with Beijing’s support. “Whatever they are doing at LAC in
Ladakh, it is because of the abrogation of Article 370, which they never
accepted. I am hopeful that with their support, Article 370 will be restored in
J&K," Farooq had said.
"I never invited the Chinese President, it was PM
Modi who not only invited him, but did jhoola sawari with him. PM Modi even
took him to Chennai and had food with him," Farooq Abdullah said.
Reacting to the National Conference leader’s
statement, Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said, "With great respect,
I will totally disagree. Irrespective of the merits of the Article 370 issue,
it is completely wrong to even remotely refer to any foreign power, be it China
or Pakistan. World's proudest democracy needs no interference from the world's
largest and most hated dictatorship on the one side and a failed state like
Pakistan on the other. Internal debates in India are a sign of vibrant
democracy but they do not mean that responsible former Constitutional post
holders can bring in such unconstitutional references."
Abdullah, his son and former CM Omar Abdullah and PDP
chief and another former CM Mehbooba Mufti were put under detention under the
Public Safety Act. Farooq Abdullah was, however, first to be released in
February this year followed by Omar. But Mehbooba Mufti continues to be in
detention under PSA at her official house which was declared as subsidiary
jail.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/bjp-calls-farooqs-art-370-remark-seditious-says-it-compromises-countrys-sovereignty/articleshow/78630122.cms
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Indians abducted in Libya released, efforts on for
their return home: MEA
Edited by Sohini Sarkar
Oct 12, 2020
The seven Indian nationals kidnapped in Libya last
month have been released by their abductors and handed over to their employer,
the external affairs ministry said on Monday.
The seven men are in good health and formalities are
being completed to facilitate their return to India, the ministry said in a
statement.
The ministry reiterated that a ban on the travel of
Indians to Libya, irrespective of purpose, has been in place since May 2016
because of the security situation there.
The circumstances of the release of the seven Indians,
including whether any ransom was paid to their abductors, couldn’t immediately
be ascertained. It also couldn’t be ascertained who had kidnapped the men. No
group or individual has so far claimed responsibility.
On October 8, the external affairs ministry confirmed
the seven Indians had been abducted at Asshwerif in Libya on September 14,
while they were travelling to Tripoli airport to catch a flight back to India.
The men belong to Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, and were
working for a construction and oilfield supplies company.
The men were released on Sunday and India’s ambassador
to Tunisia, Puneet Roy Kundal, spoke to them on phone after they were handed
over by the abductors to the company that had employed them, Al Shola Al Mudia.
“All of them are in good health and are currently
staying in the company’s premises in Brega,” the ministry said.
“We convey our sincere thanks to the Libyan
authorities and the tribal elders from the region for their steadfast
cooperation in securing the release of our nationals unharmed,” it added.
The Indian embassy in Tunisia handles matters related
to the welfare of Indian nationals in Libya. India’s relations with Libya were
snapped after the fall of the Muammar Gaddafi regime in 2011, and both
countries currently don’t have a representative in each other’s capitals.
India made an attempt to re-establish diplomatic ties
when Union minister Kiren Rijiju made an official visit to Tripoli in May 2018.
It was reported then that there were some 1,500 Indians who had stayed on in
Libya despite advisories issued by the external affairs ministry.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/indians-abducted-in-libya-released-efforts-on-for-their-return-home-mea/story-14HuKO2K9T9ez5mEcEQ2SP.html
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Pakistani Lashkar commander, aide killed in Srinagar
encounter
Oct 13, 2020
SRINAGAR: A Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba commander wanted
for a string of terror attacks on security forces since mid-August was shot dead
early Monday along with another terrorist after being trapped in Srinagar’s
congested Rambagh locality for hours as a cordon-and-search team swooped in for
the kill, taking care to avoid collateral damage.
Saifullah, not to be confused with his Pakistan-born
Hizbul Mujahideen namesake “Dr Saifullah”, is the first Pakistani terrorist to
be spotted and killed within Srinagar city since the resurgence of terrorism in
Kashmir in 2016.
J&K DGP Dilbag Singh said Saifullah, who
infiltrated the Valley from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir earlier this year, had
been masterminding one strike after another, including four consecutive attacks
in which three CRPF and two police personnel were killed since August 14.
Shifting base from north to south Kashmir, the Lashkar
commander and his slain aide — identified as Irshad Ahmed Dar, alias Abu Usama,
from Trichal in Pulwama — had moved further to enter Srinagar around 15 days
ago, IGP (Kashmir range) Vijay Kumar told TOI.
Together, the duo carried out a terror attack at
Nowgam on August 14 in which two IRP cops were killed and another injured; at
Kaisarmullah in Chadoora on September 24, in which a CRPF man was killed and
his rifle snatched; and on October 5 on the New Bypass in Taingam Nowgam, in
which two CRPF personnel were slain and four injured.
Giving details of the operation against Saifullah and
his aide, IGP Kumar said a joint team of Srinagar Police and the CRPF moved
into the Rambagh area in the dead of night, based on intelligence inputs about
the duo’s presence in a house there. The bodies of the two ultras, who had
opened fire at the search party, were found in their hideout long after the
first shots were fired.
The two bodies will be sent to north Kashmir’s
Baramulla for burial after completion of medico-legal formalities, including
DNA collection. If their kin want to participate in the last rites, they can
come forward for identification of the bodies, police said.
DGP Singh said another terrorist known to be involved
in a couple of attacks remains within Srinagar city. “He will be taken out
soon,” the police chief said at a press conference here, adding that security
forces had killed 180 ultras in 75 anti-terror operations so far this year.
“All anti-terror operations conducted this year were clean,” he said, pointing
out that only one civilian had died in the crossfire during an encounter in
Srinagar’s Batamaloo area on September 17.
On whether ultras from Lashkar and other outfits were
trying to set foot again in Srinagar, the DGP said eight encounters took place
in the city this year alone in which 18 terrorists including a top Hizbul
Mujahideen commander were killed. “Whenever any terror outfit tries to
establish its base in Srinagar, we successfully act against them with the help
of intelligence and other sources,” he said.
A total of 19 policemen and 21 CRPF personnel were
killed in various terror attacks in Kashmir. “Army lost 15 soldiers and a
majority of them were killed on the Line of Control,” DGP Singh said.
Responding to a question about the rehabilitation of
misled youth, the police chief said 26 Kashmiri youngsters who had taken up
arms were brought back and reunited with their families this year. Asked
whether these youth were being sent outside J&K, the DGP replied in the
negative. On the topic of a rehabilitation policy for them, he said,
“Officially, there is no policy as yet. Details would be shared when there is
one.”
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/pakistani-lashkar-commander-aide-killed-in-srinagar-encounter/articleshow/78630083.cms
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NIA arrests terror suspect from Budgam
Oct 13, 2020
SRINAGAR: National Investigation Agency (NIA) on
Monday arrested Tafazul Hussain Parimoo, a resident of J&K’s Budgam, in
connection with its probe into suspended J&K deputy superintendent of
police Davinder Singh’s alleged connections with terror groups.
“Tafazul played a key role in supplying arms and
ammunition to accused Tariq Mir — former sarpanch of Maldera in Shopian who was
arrested in April — who further supplied them to Hizbul terrorists active in
Shopian,” the spokesperson added.
DSP Davinder Singh was arrested in January while
travelling in his car with Hizbul Mujahideen’s Naveed Babu. The NIA had said he
had provided shelter to the terrorist on multiple occasions.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/nia-arrests-terror-suspect-from-budgam/articleshow/78630051.cms
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3 Jammu and Kashmir teachers held under PSA, school
faces terror scan
Oct 13, 2020
SRINAGAR: Three teachers of a CBSE-affiliated school
in south Kashmir's Shopian that has allegedly produced 13 terrorists, including
a teenager involved in the Pulwama attack, were arrested on Monday and booked
under the Public Safety Act (PSA) for "indoctrinating and inducing their
students to wage war against the state".
IGP (Kashmir range) Vijay Kumar said the Jamia Sirajul
Uloom Secondary School, a well-known institution that retained its seminary
roots even as it transitioned to formal education, had been under the scanner
for some time because of its alleged association with the banned
Jamiat-e-Islami.
Sajjad Bhat, the terrorist whose car was used in the
February 2019 Pulwama suicide attack that killed 40 CRPF personnel, had studied
in this school before he went missing. The 17-year-old was killed in an
encounter a few months later.
The three teachers accused of trying to turn the
school into a terror factory have been identified as Abdul Ahad Bhat, Rouf Bhat
and Mohammad Yusuf Wani. Besides the PSA, they have been slapped with cases
under Section 107 of the CrPC, which deals with breach of peace.
"Five to six other teachers of the school are
under surveillance for their conduct," the IGP said. "Right now, we
are taking action against individuals, but if the need arises, we will also
initiate steps against the school."
Muhammad Yousuf Matoo, the chairman Jamia Sirajul
Uloom, contested allegations about the school functioning under the radar as an
indoctrination centre for future terrorists. Disowning the arrested trio, he
said none of them was a teacher at the school.
On alumnus Sajjad being named among the main accused
in the Pulwama bombing, Matoo said the institution should not be blamed for a
former student's wrongdoing. "We had no role in it. Sajjad, who the police
say was involved in the attack, had been a student here only for some months.
He was working as a mechanic before joining the terrorist ranks. How can one
assume that we made him do that?"
Most students at the institution are from the
terrorist-infested districts of Kulgam, Pulwama, Anantnag and Shopian. IGP Kumar
said several terror outfits had recruited local cadres through a section of
teachers at the school.
Challenging the police to prove the allegations, the
school's chairman said, "Our institute is recognised by the J&K
government. The NCERT syllabus is taught here. Our oriental college is
affiliated to Kashmir University. We are open to answering every question. Any
media group can come and check our teaching methods and other affairs. Anyone
can check our finances and syllabus resources. We are registered with the
income tax department."
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/3-jammu-and-kashmir-teachers-held-under-psa-school-faces-terror-scan/articleshow/78630028.cms
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South Asia
Afghan forces kill over 70 Taliban militants, detain
local leader in Helmand: officials
12 October 2020
Afghan military forces have carried out an attack on a
group of Taliban militants in Helmand, killing scores of them and arresting the
group’s local governor days after an escalation of fighting in the southern province.
In an operation, involving air force commandos, “71
Taliban” militants were killed in Nawa and Nahr-e-Saraj districts on Monday, a
spokesman for the Ministry of Interior (MoI), Tariq Arian told TOLO News.
Arian did not provide information on possible Afghan
casualties.
Security forces also managed to detain the Taliban's
deputy governor for Helmand, Mawlawi Ghafoor, according to Helmand governor's
office.
The fighting also resulted in the destruction of a
power substation, leaving Kandahar and Helmand with power cuts.
Heavy clashes erupted between Afghan security forces
and the Taliban over the weekend on the outskirts of Lashkargah, prompting
local residents of the Nad-e-Ali District to seek refuge in the provincial
capital Lashkargah.
The fighting resulted in the fall of city police
district to the militants.
Some parts of a highway that connects Lashkargah to
Kandahar Province also fell to the Taliban, according to the head of Helmand's
provincial council, Ataullah Afghan.
The highway has remained closed to traffic since then.
At least eleven security forces were killed in the
fighting on Thursday.
The bloodshed comes as the two sides are engaged in
intra-Afghan talks in the Qatari capital Doha in an effort to end nearly two
decades of war in the country.
The first round of talks began last month in the wake
of a deal reached between the United States and the Taliban earlier this year
in Doha.
Under the deal, Washington promised to pull out all
its troops by mid-2021 in return for the Taliban to stop their attacks on
US-led occupation foreign forces in Afghanistan.
The Afghan government was a party neither to the
negotiations nor to the deal, but it has been acting in accordance with its
terms, including by agreeing to free the Taliban prisoners.
Official data, however, shows that Taliban bombings
and other assaults have increased 70 percent since the militant group signed a
deal with Washington.
The US invaded Afghanistan and toppled a Taliban
regime in 2001.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/12/636198/Afghanistan-Taliban-Helmand-aristrike-Mawlawi-Ghafoor
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Afghans: a Mercenary Martial Race or Misplaced
Potential?
By Samiullah Doorandesh
12 Oct 2020
History pages of no other country are filled with so
much the narration of unabated bloodshed, horrific dynastic feuds, plundering,
internecine conflicts and gruesome military engagements as they are of the
Afghans—a historic multi-ethnic nation whose largely unfortunate fate have
overshadowed so many great things about it. Historically, a nation of marvelous
conquests and unprecedented resilience has been the hot topic, frequently
featuring despairing news, of 21st century regional and global politics due to
its role, hosting the War on Terror and decades-long Afghan War. The nature of
their distinctive traits and reasons of their unfortunate fate can be rightly
associated with the description of artist and Lieutenant, James Rattray,
1790-1862, who served in the British Army and studied the Afghans
comprehensively. He describes them as “naturally a restless and independent
people, and according to one of their own proverbs, ready to bear hunger,
thirst, cruelty and death, but never–a master.” However, on a careful
historical analysis, one reach the conclusion that their frequent military entanglements
and sacrifices have not prospered them a lot due to their ignorance of
peripheral dynamics and long-term implications.
This essay attempts to highlight the engagement of
Afghans in incessant domestic and foreign conflicts, underlining the reasons of
bogging in inessential quagmires. Moreover, it explores how religious
ideologies have been employed to manipulate their natural restlessness and
religious enthusiasm for the pursuit of other gains.
In retrospect, India, a natural ally of the Afghans,
has been home to individuals and families from around the globe. Apart from the
Turk, French, Arab, Persian and Central Asian soldiers of fortune, India
embraced the Afghan families and warriors, escaping poverty in their polities
and embarked on a new destination to make a living for themselves, mostly
through engaging in trade and selling their fighting services. The Afghan
warriors, renowned for their bravery and ruthlessness, were sought after by
many local chieftains and warlords who were keen to cement and expand their
powerbase and rule. In modern Indian history, the Afghans have been credited as
a formidable fighting force who went on to take control of Delhi, the Mughal
capital, and ruled the city for around a decade at the expense of grave losses
to this once marvelous city.
The first major military engagement of Afghans in
India was when Shah Waliullah, a Muslim reformist, after being shrugged by
other Muslim nobles and Mughal princes to help him implement his reformist
agenda wrote a letter to the founder and ruler of Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah
Durrani, to invade and stop the growing influence of ‘infidels’—Jats, Marathas
and Sikhs. Durrani fought a bloody battle with the Marathas at Panipat and
broke down their power in India. The narrow-sightedness of both Shah Waliullah
and Durrani significantly turned the tables in favor of British forces who saw
the Marathas as a check to their expansion. It has been one of the greatest
myths in Afghan historical discourse to believe that Durrani invaded India at the
behest of a prominent Muslim scholar and at the intention of saving Islam from
further threats. The former could be verified by the historical sources but the
latter can’t be substantiated by the prevalent dominant discourse in Afghan
history books because a neutral reading of multiple history sources suggest the
fact that Durrani was more interested in the gold and jewels of India rather
than the revival and predominance of Muslims in India.
In analysis of an another event from history, it is
quite interesting to note how a prominent Indian Muslim leader, Tipu Sultan of
Mysore, in a letter addresses and requests the Afghan ruler, Shah Zaman, to
assist him in his political and military campaigns against the British and
rival Marathas, despite the fact that the two polities did not have any
established relations: the only commonality was their religion. Tipu seeing his
downfall of military prowess deftly uses the expressions of ‘infidels’ and
‘holy war’ to lure him into accepting his requests of sending 20,000 Afghan
cavalry in return of 3 crore rupees. The Afghan ruler responds by showing great
ambition in the pursuit of engaging in ‘holy war’. However, the superiority of
British diplomacy overcame the prospects of joint Tipu-Zaman venture into
battlefield against the British.
In contemporary politics of Cold War, Afghans and
Afghanistan proved to be the perfect match to employ in eradicating the menace
of communism once and for all. This CIA was in charge of the mission to train,
sustain, fund and arm the Afghan guerillas settled in Pakistan. The objective
was to trap and wound the Soviet bear which was dexterously completed at the
expense of millions of Afghan casualties and complete destruction of
Afghanistan. The CIA, knowing the social and religious sensitivities of
Afghans, was keen to do whatever tactics they had to employ in order to
activate the indigenous enthusiasm of Afghans for fighting to keep the flame of
resistance hot and burning. The project of publishing religious textbooks,
funded by USAID and assisted by ISI in circulation in refugee camps, glorified
violence in the name of religion. Ironically, the books were published in
University of Nebraska, Omaha which nurtured a generation of young refugee
Afghans which glamorized violence and bloodshed. The guerillas who were
romanticized as liberators of Afghanistan from the godless creatures were no
less than Western or to be precise American mercenaries who vied for the sole
purpose of making fortunes and consolidating power: their actions after the
Soviet withdrawal proved it right. The Afghans in general, sacrificing whatever
they had for the revival of sovereignty,
earned nothing consequential instead of misery, destruction, violence
and dire poverty while the Mujahideen leaders went on to become the most
powerful figures in Afghanistan who continues to dominate key political
positions even today.
The conflict over the disputed territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh has once again intensified. The Afghans having been occupied
by their own pains might not know much about the conflict but there are some
Afghans who have participated in the Nagorno-Karabakh War of 1990s. It is
reported that nearly 5000 Afghan fighters, belonging to Hezb-i-Islami faction
of Gulbaden Hekmatyar, were flown from Iran to Azerbaijan to fight alongside
the Azeri soldiers. A local Afghan news have reported the leader of the
faction, Hekmatyar, proudly taking credit to have sent his followers to defend
the Muslim Azeris against the infidel Armenians. It is interesting to relate to
one soldier who recalls his memories of the war by saying that when I went
there I had only $250 but upon returning it had reached $1700.
On the Middle Eastern front, the Afghan Shia Hazara
refugees in Iran have been reported to be actively fighting alongside the
Iranian Shia militias in Iraq and Syria. They were flown on the pretense to
carry out their Islamic duty of protecting the shrine of the granddaughter of
Prophet Muhammad in Damascus. The Afghan Fatemiyoun brigade has been used as
cannon fodder in Iran’s geopolitical power games.
When it comes to the manipulation of Afghan human
force and fighting capabilities, nowhere else can it be seen more evident than
in Pakistan’s political games with the United States and India. The Pakistani
military and intelligence agency, the ISI, have been at the forefront since the
inception of War on Terror to wear the mighty American military to withdraw the
region and take over the Afghan affairs vis-à-vis India. The Taliban have been
surprisingly successful to resist the highly trained and
technologically-advanced forces of United States, despite their significant
losses throughout the years. The fighting capabilities of Taliban, who
originally are Afghans, have surprised the international community by not
giving up on their cause. The motivational force behind such steadfastness is
none other than the miraculous powers of Islamic ideology, especially that of
holy war. However, one cannot neglect the strategic and military support of a
nuclear power at their disposal.
After analyzing some historical events, some relations
can be found to unearth the reasons and the dominant inclinations of Afghans
towards military adventures. It must be noted that successive Afghan rulers
have been unable to consolidate their powers over the entire population.
History approves James Rattray’s description of Afghans as Independent people
who have been largely unrestrained in their individual decision-making. In
addition, the Afghan society is ultraconservative which is sometimes easily
carried away by injuring or manipulating their sentiments attached to the
notions of religion and ideology. This trait has been mainly manipulated by
various countries of the region who under the guise of religion pursues other
political, economic and political ends. Moreover, Afghan rulers have not been
successful in uniting every section of society under one roof in pursuit of a
unified cause. Afghans with their instinctive military prowess can emerge as a
challenging force in the future only if their potential is rightly accumulated
and utilized. The Afghans have proved time and gain that to overcome any force
you need not necessarily the numbers but the spirit and courage to fight till
the end. These assets must not be wasted on fighting foreign wars. The Afghan
intelligentsia and political elite must prioritize the need to stop the
manipulation of Afghans as cannon fodder for the interests and agenda of other
countries. Afghan potential must not be misplaced any further. If they fail to
act in the right direction, a section of this great nation will be considered
as a brutal mercenary force for the polities of the region which is not a
desired recognition for any civilized nation.
https://www.khaama.com/afghans-a-mercenary-martial-race-or-misplaced-potential-643344/
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Ghani: Helmand Battle will Cost Taliban Heavy
By Mohammad Haroon Alim
12 Oct 2020
President Ashraf Ghani told Helmand Governor Gen.
Mohammad Yasin that the Taliban would make the fighting in Helmand difficult.
Yasin wrote on his Facebook page that President Ghani
had spoken to him a few minutes ago about the situation in Helmand and assured
him that he had ordered the security agencies to take Helmand seriously.
“The war in Helmand will be very difficult for the
enemies of the country,” he posted.
This comes as fierce fighting broke out between Afghan
security forces and the Taliban in the center and districts of Helmand province
on Sunday morning, which is still ongoing and both sides are claiming
inflicting heavy casualties on each other.
https://www.khaama.com/ghani-helmand-battle-will-cost-taliban-heavy-878675/
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Violence ‘Increased’ Amid Peace Negotiations: Abdullah
By Mohammad Arif Sheva
13 Oct 2020
KABUL, Afghanistan – Chairman of the High Council for
National Reconciliation Abdullah Abdullah Monday said historic steps have been
taken for peace and the time has come to reduce violence, according to sources,
urging negotiators to push through the deadlock that halted peace process for
weeks.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Zamzam
Foundation, a charity body created to support war victims, Abdullah said
Afghans expect negotiators to reach a conclusion that will determine peace and
stability in Afghanistan.
“The talks are underway, the steps which are taken are
preliminary and historic steps, but the Afghan people expect these talks to be
accelerated and violence to be reduced, because in the view of current
circumstances, violence has not only reduced, but it has increased compared to
the past,” said Abdullah, according to report.
Meanwhile, Chairperson of Zamzam Foundation Neelofar
Ibrahimi said the independent body will provide help to the victims and their
families of war, as she called for a swift end to the bloodshed.
“We decided to lay the foundation of an organization
that could help those affected by the dark shadows of the war,” said Neelofar
Ibrahimi, chairperson of Zamzam Foundation.
The remarks came a time the contact groups of each,
the Afghanistan and Taliban delegations, have come together Monday night to
push thought the deadlock, but once again failed to unite thoughts on forming
the ground rules for peace negotiations.
While the Afghan team believe an agreement on the
procedural rules might be reached within the next few days, critique suggests
an unpredicted timeline for the negotiations if the contact groups remain cold
about the disputed points.
https://www.khaama.com/violence-increased-amid-peace-negotiations-abdullah-65443/
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Rakhine: Covid aggravates apartheid towards Rohingya
Muslims
10/12/2020
Yangon (AsiaNews) - The Covid-19 pandemic in Myanmar,
considered the new hot front in Southeast Asia together with Malaysia, has once
again highlighted the conditions of serious fragility of the Rohingya Muslim
minority in the western state of Rakhine.
For years targeted by the Buddhist majority, the local
community is still subject to threats, forced to live in conditions of
overcrowding, denied aid, subject to travel restrictions that end up increasing
the risk of transmission of the virus. This is the complaint in a recently
published report by Human Rights Watch (HRW), according to which the Rohingya
are also subject to extortion, harassment and hate speech by the authorities.
Entitled "An open prison without end", the
study highlights how since 1982 and with an acceleration in 2012 by the
military leadership, the Muslim minority has been increasingly the target of
attacks and violence. An escalation that, according to some experts, would have
resulted in a real policy of "genocide" - an accusation rejected by
the democratic leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi - or of
forced flight abroad in precarious humanitarian conditions.
HRW experts report that Rohingya children are denied
the right to education. About 70% of the 120,000 school-age children in refugee
camps in Rakhine State have no access to education. The restrictions on
movement imposed by the pandemic have exacerbated the problem and most can only
attend makeshift lessons set up by makeshift masters.
The denied right to education becomes an instrument to
prolong the policy of segregation and marginalization for the Muslim minority,
denying them "a future of self-confidence and dignity". This
situation, the report continues, "ends up fuelling a vicious circle in
which the conditions and services available worsen".
Many say that life in the camps is comparable to
"continuous house arrest", in which "the right to freedom of
movement, dignity, access to employment and education, certainty of access to
food, water, health services is denied." According to some complaints, a
system of apartheid similar to that seen in the past in South Africa against
the black population is being applied to the Muslim minority; there would also
be laws and governmental provisions to prevent the Rohingya from participating
in the nation's political, social and economic life.
This set of factors has contributed to increasing
morbidity and mortality, including Covid-19, in refugee camps, where there were
already situations of malnutrition, diseases transmitted by polluted water and
a much higher infant mortality rate than in Rakhine Buddhists.
The government led by the National League for
Democracy (NLD), led by Suu Kyi, has repeatedly demonstrated that it does not
want to improve the conditions of the Rohingya, concludes the HRW report,
dampening the enthusiasm that arose in the aftermath of the victory at the
polls in 2015. "How can we hope for the future?" points out Ali Khan,
who lives in a refugee camp in Kyauktaw. "The local authorities could help
us if they wanted to improve the situation, but they only end up denying us all
rights."
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Rakhine:-Covid-aggravates-apartheid-towards-Rohingya-Muslims-51279.html
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Pakistan
Pakistan PM’s top aide Asim Saleem Bajwa resigns
following reports of corruption
12 October, 2020
Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s
Special Assistant on Information and Broadcasting Lt Gen (retd.) Asim Saleem
Bajwa resigned on Monday, amid allegations that he used his offices to help
family set up several off-shore businesses.
“I requested the honourable prime minister to
relinquish me from the additional portfolio of SAPM on Info & broadcasting.
He very kindly approved my request,” Bajwa, the former Pakistan Army spokesman
who also served as Commander of the Southern Command, tweeted.
However, he would continue working as chairman of the
China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) Authority, Dawn newspaper reported.
The development comes more than a month after Bajwa
submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Khan following a report on a
website that alleged that he had used his offices in setting up off-shore
businesses of his wife, sons and brothers.
However, Khan rejected his resignation at the time and
asked him to continue working as his special assistant.
The report alleged that Bajwa’s younger brothers
opened their first Papa John’s pizza restaurant in 2002, the year he started
working as a Lieutenant Colonel on the General Pervez Musharraf’s staff.
It claimed that his brother Nadeem Bajwa, 53, who
started as a delivery driver for the pizza restaurant franchise, another three
brothers, his wife Farrukh Zeba and three sons now own a business empire which
set up 99 companies in four countries, including a pizza franchise with 133
restaurants worth an estimated USD 39.9 million.
Out of the total 99 firms, 66 are main companies, 33
are branch companies of some of the main companies while five firms are dead
now.
The Bajwa family’s companies spent an estimated USD
52.2 million to develop their businesses and USD 14.5 million to purchase
properties in the United States, according to the website report.
His wife was a shareholder in all the foreign
businesses and also associated with or is a shareholder in 85 companies
including 82 foreign companies (71 in United States, seven in UAE and four in
Canada).
The report said that some of these American companies
(all jointly owned by Zeba) also have investments in the real estate sector and
own 13 commercial properties in the US, including two shopping centres.
Interestingly, Bajwa after joining the Cabinet
declared his assets in June this year which did not mention his wife’s foreign
assets.
Following the publication of the report, Opposition
parties had called for Bajwa to face the allegations against him.
A newly formed alliance of 11 opposition parties – the
Pakistan Democratic Movement – passed a resolution in September, saying that
claims made in the news report regarding Bajwa’s assets and family business
should be probed. The forum said that he should be removed as the chairman of
CPEC Authority until the investigation is completed.
On Monday, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz vice-president
Maryam Nawaz said that the resignation from SAPM’s position “means nothing”.
She demanded that Bajwa resign from his post of CPEC
Authority’s chairperson and “surrender to law.
https://theprint.in/world/pakistan-pms-top-aide-asim-saleem-bajwa-resigns-following-reports-of-corruption/522380/
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Safdar seeks pre-arrest bail over NAB asset inquiry
13 Oct 2020
PESHAWAR: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader retired
Captain Mohammad Safdar on Monday moved the Peshawar High Court seeking
pre-arrest bail over an ongoing inquiry of the National Accountability Bureau,
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, against him for allegedly holding assets beyond means.
Mr Safdar, who is a son-in-law of former prime
minister and PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, filed the bail petition with the court
saying the NAB inquiry against him was based on mala fide intent as he had
appeared before its combined investigation team on multiple occasions and
produced all the information sought by investigation officers but even then,
warrants for his arrest were issued by the NAB chairman.
He said he had appeared before the NAB investigation
team on different occasions, while a call-up notice was issued to him on Sept
17, 2020, along with a questionnaire and he’d returned it with a detailed
reply.
The petitioner said he visited the NAB regional
headquarters in Peshawar on Oct 8 in compliance with the call-up notice and was
given a notice regarding the issuance of warrants for his arrest.
Insists probe based on mala fide intent, meant to
humiliate him
The petitioner, who is a former MNA, said he feared
imminent arrest and humiliation by the NAB and therefore, he invoked the
constitutional jurisdiction of the high court to secure the pre-arrest bail
over the asset inquiry against him.
The petition was filed through a panel of lawyers
comprising Abdul Lateef Afridi, Barrister Syed Mudasser Ameer, Manzoor Khan
Khalil and Barrister Yaseen Raza Khan.
The NAB’s executive board had approved in 2018 the
start of probe into a citizen’s complaint that Mr Safdar possessed assets
disproportionate to the known sources of his income, a crime under the National
Accountability Ordinance, 1999.
The petitioner contended that Section 24 of the NAO
empowered the NAB chairman to allow the arrest of a person during inquiry or
investigation but that power, which had been vested in him to ensure proper
inquiry and investigation, had to be exercised within the parameters provided
by the law.
He added that once all the records had been provided
to the investigation team and the inquiry/investigation had been completed,
there was no need for his arrest.
The PML-N leader said the power of arrest under
Section 24 of the NAO was neither absolute nor unfettered and it had to be
exercised fairly and judiciously within the parameters provided by the law.
He further said Article 9 of the Constitution declared
that the ‘petitioner will not be deprived of his liberty save in accordance
with the law’.
Mr Safdar said it was by now settled in light of the
superior court judgments that in the absence of some solid and cogent evidence
or complaint, the NAB had no authority to harass and torment citizens through
vague call-up notices and unwarranted arrests.
He claimed that during the course of his political
career, he had also filed the asset declarations with the Election Commission
of Pakistan, with the one made in July 2018, before the general elections.
The PML-N leader said he belonged to a respectable
family and had held very respectable positions in the service of the country
and his arrest would result in his humiliation in the eyes of the people.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1584801/safdar-seeks-pre-arrest-bail-over-nab-asset-inquiry
--------
‘Gang of dacoits’ out to hide its corruption, says
Imran
Syed Irfan Raza
13 Oct 2020
ISLAMABAD: Allowing the Pakistan Democratic Movement
(PDM) to hold its rally in Gujranwala on Oct 16, Prime Minister Imran Khan on
Monday said people would judge for themselves how ‘strong’ the opposition was.
He directed the authorities concerned to allow the
public gathering during the meeting of the special committee formed to deal
with the opposition’s anti-government movement.
Talking to Dawn on condition of anonymity, a
participant of the meeting said: “The prime minister was of the view that the
opposition be allowed to hold its public meeting as it (opposition) will expose
itself by doing so.”
The meeting, however, insisted the organisers should
ensure that standard operating procedures were observed as the country was
experiencing resurgence in coronavirus cases.
The source said Prime Minister Khan termed the joint
opposition “a gang of dacoits”, which was starting an anti-government campaign
just to hide its corruption, adding that the public would see the opposition’s
‘show of power’ itself.
The opposition, on the other hand, has objected to the
prime minister’s statement of allowing it to hold the gathering, saying it did
not require the government’s permission for it.
The PDM was scheduled to hold its first public rally
against the government in Quetta on Oct 11 but due to ‘security’ reasons, the
plan was dropped. Later, the main opposition parties — Pakistan Muslim League-N
(PML-N) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) — decided to hold separate rallies on
Oct 16 in Gujranwala and in Karachi on Oct 18, respectively, but this too did
not work out, with the PDM finally deciding to hold a grand gathering in
Gujranwala on Oct 16.
A few days ago, Interior Minister Ijaz Shah, in a
statement, had said the government should not allow the opposition to hold the
rally, whereas Information Minister Shibli Faraz, after the federal cabinet’s
meeting last Tuesday, declared that the government would permit the opposition
to go ahead with its programme.
Meanwhile, Minister for Planning and Development Asad
Umar said, politically, the government did not fear the opposition’s movement
against it, but as the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Covid-19
chairman he was concerned about the spread of coronavirus.
Speaking at a TV show, Mr Umar said data showed that
Covid-19 infections, which had declined a couple of months ago, were rising
again.
He appealed to the opposition parties to avoid holding
huge gatherings and follow SOPs like social distancing and wearing of masks
during their protests, adding that “if the opposition wants to launch a
movement against the government, it does not need to fill up grounds”.
The minister said 10 deaths each were reported on four
different days this month throughout the country.
He said the opposition could not topple the government
and would never resign from the assemblies.
On the other hand, PML-N Information Secretary
Marriyum Aurangzeb said Imran Khan did not have the power to obstruct PDM’s public
meeting.
She said people had become frustrated from facing one
crisis after another brought on them by who she called “looters” in the
government.
The prime minister’s statement of allowing the
opposition to hold its public gathering was a “desperate attempt” to mask his
embarrassment, she added.
“This is just like how the government had earlier
allowed airing of Nawaz Sharif’s speech and then asking Pemra to ban it,” Ms
Aurangzeb said.
PM meets NCM delegation
Prime Minister Imran Khan has said there was a need
for everyone to unite and defeat anti-state elements who were striving to
spread disorder in society on the pretext of religion.
He was talking to a delegation of the National
Commission for Minorities (NCM), led by its chairman Chela Ram Kewlani, that
called on him at the Prime Minister’s House.
The delegation comprised Minister for Religious
Affairs Pir Noorul Haq Qadri, Maulana Syed Mohammad Abdul Khabir Azad, Mufti
Gulzar Ahmad Naeemi, Jiapal Chhabria, Vishnu Raja Qawi, Dr Sarah Safdar,
Archbishop Sebastian Frances Shaw, Albert David, Dr Mampal Singh, Sarup Singh,
Roshan Khurshid Bharucha, Dawood Shah, Islamic Ideology Council Chairman Dr
Qibla Ayaz and Parliamentary Secretary Shanila Rath.
Matters relating to further strengthening NCM’s role
were discussed in the meeting.
The prime minister said the government was committed
to protecting the constitutional and legal rights of citizens belonging to the
minority community and would take all measures in this regard.
Covid-19 meeting
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Monday feared the country
might face a second wave of the pandemic in winter and directed the Centre and
provinces to devise an effective strategy to deal with it.
“Reports of the second wave of the virus coming from
different countries are evident of the fact that chances of the spread of
coronavirus increases in winter,” he said while presiding over a meeting on
Covid-19.
The meeting was told that data from the last six
months had shown that the virus was re-emerging due to which smart lockdown was
imposed in Islamabad, Karachi and Azad Kashmir.
It suggested banning all public gatherings, except
educational institutions and economic activities.
An official statement of a separate NCOC meeting said
the number of active cases in the country as of Monday was 8,552 after 385 more
people tested positive.
According to the latest update, 10 patients died on
Sunday, including six in hospitals,
Around 26,951 tests were conducted throughout the
country on Sunday - 8,497 in Sindh, 11,082 in Punjab, 3,141 in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa, 2,855 in Islamabad Capital Territory, 661 in Balochistan, 232 in
Gilgit-Baltistan and 483 in Azad Kashmir.
So far 304,185 people have recovered from the virus,
making it a significant count.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1584729/gang-of-dacoits-out-to-hide-its-corruption-says-imran
--------
Maryam predicts govt ouster before January
13 Oct 2020
LAHORE: PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz says the
government can’t win war against the masses as people are standing by Nawaz
Sharif and soon they will get rid of this ‘incompetent and incapable prime
minister’ following the protest drive.
She told a private TV channel that the Imran Khan’s
government would be sent packing before January following Pakistan Democratic
Movement’s protest campaign.
Meanwhile, she also demanded resignation of retired
Lt-Gen Asim Saleem Bajwa from the CPEC chairmanship.
“Resignation from the post of the special assistant to
the prime minister on information and broadcasting is not enough. Mr Bajwa
should also resign from the chairmanship of the China-Pakistan Economic
Corridor. CPEC is a game changer for Pakistan and a person who is facing
allegations should separate himself from it,” she told reporters in Model Town
on Monday where she had come to meet party leaders and workers to review the
Gujranwala rally on Oct 16.
In a statement, PML-N information secretary Marriyum
Aurangzeb said the entire city of Gujranwala and people would come to attend
the public meeting on Oct 16.
She said Imran Khan never had the power to obstruct
the PDM rally.
Responding to Imran’s statement, Marriyum said these
public meetings were a resolve of the people of Pakistan frustrated by the
‘theft’ of sugar, flour, medicine and fuel by the ‘looters’ in this government.
“These public meetings are an outrage against the
robbing of their mandate and the desecration of the sanctity of their vote”,
she said.
The former Information minister said these statements
by Imran were a desperate effort to mask his embarrassment.
“The flood of Pakistanis is ready to break all
barriers and to express their will, they don’t need Imran’s permission. The
true leaders don’t need Imran’s advice or permission to arrive as all they need
is the love of their people which they already have more than the selected
prime minister can imagine”, Marriyum said.
BAIL: An anti-terrorism court on Monday extended the
interim pre-arrest bail of PML-N MNA Rana Sanaullah Khan, retired Capt Muhammad
Safdar and others in a case of allegedly attacking a police team outside the
office of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) where PML-N Vice President
Maryam Nawaz had gone to appear in an inquiry about land allotment.
Mr Khan along with his legal counsel appeared before
the court, while an application for one-time exemption from personal appearance
was filed on behalf of Mr Safdar.
Presiding Judge Arshad Hussain Bhutta allowed the
application of Safdar and extended the bail of the PML-N leaders till Oct 15.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1584776/maryam-predicts-govt-ouster-before-january
--------
Southeast Asia
Malaysia's Anwar says he gave king proof of over 120
MPs' support
October 13, 2020
KUALA LUMPUR -- Malaysian opposition leader Anwar
Ibrahim on Tuesday said he presented the country's king with documents proving
he has majority support in the lower house of parliament, as he strives to
topple the current government led by Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin.
A statement from the palace, however, suggested the
evidence was not quite as airtight as Anwar made it out to be.
Anwar, speaking to reporters after an audience with
King Sultan Abdullah Ri'ayatuddin, said the ruler would now take his time to
personally confer with the party leaders who he claims are in his corner.
"One thing is clear -- that Muhyiddin's
government has fallen and he must resign," said Anwar, flanked by his wife
Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as well as Saifuddin Nasution, secretary-general of his
People's Justice Party.
Anwar, 73, said he presented legitimate documentation
showing that more than 120 lawmakers support him to form a new government. He
would only need 112.
Anwar said the king assured him that he would go
through the papers diligently before making a decision. Anwar declined to give
a time frame for when that decision can be expected, but said party leaders
would be receiving calls in the next two days.
Shortly after Anwar's news conference, the National
Palace released a statement acknowledging the meeting but denying that Anwar
had presented detailed proof of a lower house majority.
"Anwar Ibrahim presented the total number of
lawmakers who he claims to support him," the palace said. "He,
however, to strengthen his claim, did not furnish names and details of the
members of parliament who he claims to support him."
The palace added that at the end of the 25-minute
audience, the king advised Anwar to abide by and respect the legal processes as
enshrined in the Federal Constitution.
In his media briefing, Anwar vowed that if he can form
a government, it would take an inclusive approach for the benefit of all
Malaysians; would be committed to institutional reform; and would not
compromise with any politicians currently facing numerous criminal charges in
court.
"What I assured them [the charged politicians]
was there will be no political vendetta and they will have to go through the
due process with an independent judiciary," he said.
Anwar has been fighting to become prime minister for
the past 22 years. Last month, he jolted the country with his claim that he
commands a "formidable, strong and convincing" parliamentary
majority, further destabilizing Muhyiddin's shaky government.
At the last official count, the Muhyiddin-led National
Alliance had the support of 114 MPs, a razor-thin majority over the minimum 112
needed to form a federal government. Anwar controlled 91 MPs via the Hope Pact
comprising his People's Justice Party, the Democratic Action Party and the
National Honest Party, while former premier Mahathir Mohamad held sway over 15
MPs including independents and members of the Sabah Heritage Party.
Anwar was twice Mahathir's heir apparent during the
latter's terms as prime minister.
But Anwar's leadership hopes first fizzled in 1998,
when Mahathir sacked him as his deputy over allegations of corruption and
sodomy, for which he was jailed from April 1999 to 2004. Muslim-majority
Malaysia criminalizes homosexuality and offenders can be imprisoned for up to
20 years, as well as whipped.
Anwar was charged again in July 2008 for alleged
sodomy involving a personal aide and was sentenced to five years. He and his
supporters blame all his legal troubles on a political vendetta.
Mahathir and Anwar appeared to mend fences when they
teamed up to defeat Najib Razak in the May 2018 election, ending the 61-year
rule of the National Front. Anwar was soon released on a full pardon by the
king, while Mahathir became prime minister for the second time.
Anwar was expected to eventually take over, but
Mahathir resigned earlier this year following an internal coup by a
Muhyiddin-led faction. Ties between Mahathir and Anwar have been uneasy since.
While Anwar has long been perceived as a
leader-in-waiting, there are also questions about the breadth of his support in
Malaysia, where many conservative Muslims consider him to be very liberal.
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/Malaysia-in-transition/Malaysia-s-Anwar-says-he-gave-king-proof-of-over-120-MPs-support
--------
China asks Malaysia to safeguard detained sailors’
rights
12 October 2020
China’s foreign ministry said Monday the country had
asked Malaysia to safeguard the rights of Chinese nationals it had detained for
trespassing in its waters, and investigate the case according to the law.
Malaysia’s maritime authorities said on Saturday they
had detained 60 Chinese nationals and six Chinese-registered fishing vessels.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said
at a daily news briefing in Beijing that officials from China’s embassy in
Malaysia have visited the sailors, and that the vessels were in Malaysian
waters when they were detained.
Malaysia reported 89 intrusions by Chinese coastguard
and navy ships between 2016 and 2019, amid escalating tensions between the
United States and China over Beijing’s claims to most of the resource-rich
South China Sea, which is also a major trade route.
The Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) has
said the fishing vessels and crew were detained on Friday and that they were
believed to have been en route to Mauritania but had to stop due to some malfunction.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/10/12/China-asks-Malaysia-to-safeguard-detained-sailors-rights
--------
Malaysia's Anwar summoned by police over complaints
ahead of meeting with monarch
12 October 2020
Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has been
summoned by police in regard to complaints by a number of lawmakers about his
claim to have their support for the country's premiership.
This is as Anwar is preparing for an audience with
Malaysia’s monarch on October 13 to present evidence of the legislators’
support for his bid to be prime minister.
Last week, Anwar confirmed the news of an audience
with King Al-Sultan Abdullah. But in recent days, his claim that he has a
“formidable” number of lawmakers putting their weight behind him to form a new
government has reportedly been denied by some of the MPs.
In a statement on Monday, police said they had
received unspecified complaints over a widely circulated list of 121 federal
lawmakers who supposedly were backing Anwar's bid.
Police specified that one of the complaints was lodged
by a member of parliament; however, they did not disclose the identities of
other complainants.
"The police urge the public not to be concerned
by the spread of the news, and advise all interested parties against spreading
news that has yet to be verified," noted Criminal Investigations
Department Director Huzir Mohamed.
Huzir noted that police had initially asked Anwar to
give his statement on Monday morning, but due to scheduling conflicts, a new
date was to be set.
In the meantime, Anwar asked members of his People's
Justice Party not to hold any gatherings while he attended his audience with
the king on Tuesday.
"I also call upon all Malaysians to keep calm as
this audience session takes place, and to remain calm for any subsequent
process that takes place thereafter," Anwar said.
The senior politician, who had been convicted of
corruption and sodomy, spent nearly 10 years behind bars, before he was granted
a royal pardon in 2018 and returned to politics.
Former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad had promised
Anwar that he would support him to be his successor.
However, following Mahathir's sudden resignation early
this year, the monarch surprisingly appointed former interior minister
Muhyiddin Yassin as the new prime minister.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/12/636209/Malaysia-Police-Anwar
--------
Mideast
Iran’s Judiciary to Establish Special Court to
Prosecute US Crimes
Oct 12, 2020
Iranian Deputy Judiciary Chief Ali Baqeri, who also
heads the country High Council of Human Rights, made the proposal to set up a
special branch to prosecute the US crimes resulting from sanctions against Iran
judicially so that the supporters of embargoes will be forced to pay a heavy
price.
Baqeri’s proposal was welcomed by Iran’s Judiciary
Chief Seyed Ebrahim Rayeesi and he ordered establishment of a special court to
prosecute the US government for its crimes, saying that Tehran’s prosecutor
office has already formed a special branch to investigate the US administration’s
crimes.
Addressing the judiciary officials in Tehran on Monday
in the presence of Rayeesi, Baqeri said that the US regime’s recent sanctions
against the state and private banks in Iran is an obvious instance of crime
against humanity and can be prosecuted at the national and local courts based
on the international laws.
He said that the US policy of maximum pressure against
Iran has now been displayed within the framework of “madness for crime”.
In relevant remarks earlier today, the Iranian foreign
ministry blasted the US embargoes against the country’s banking system, and
said the American officials' sanctions policy against Iran is driven by
madness.
“These are really theatrical shows. We do not say that
they are not effective. They have left serious damage,” Foreign Ministry
Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday.
“All measures adopted by the US are driven by the fact
that they have failed in any step they have taken and now they are suffering
from a sanction madness,” he added.
Khatibzadeh described the new US sanctions as
psychological warfare, and ensured the Iranian nation that the government will
make the US make up for the harms inflicted on Iran.
The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets
Control on Thursday imposed sanctions on 18 Iranian banks and financial
institutes in a move to bring the Iranian people to their knees.
The Trump administration decided to impose new
sanctions on Iran's financial sector in defiance of European allies who warned
that the move could have devastating humanitarian consequences on the country.
In relevant remarks, Iranian Ambassador and Permanent
Representative to the Vienna-Based International Organization Kazzem Qaribabadi
condemned the latest round of the US sanctions against Iran’s banking system,
and said the US economic terrorism against the Iranian nation has no limit.
"The criminal moves of the US regime in
threatening the lives of ordinary people through economic terrorism seem
unending," Qaribabadi wrote in an Instagram post on Friday.
“On the one hand, they [the Americans] claim that the
import of medicine and food is not subject to sanctions, but on the other hand,
they completely block the channels for the payment of the import of these
items," he went on to say.
“By now, this pervert American game should be revealed
to everyone," Qaribabadi added.
The Iranian diplomat urged the European governments to
take actual steps against US unilateralism and warmongering instead of merely
expressing regret.
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990721000825
--------
Israel court rejects call for immediate release of
Palestinian prisoner
12 October 2020
Israel’s Supreme Court has refused to order the
immediate release of Palestinian prisoner Maher al-Akhras, who has been on
hunger strike for 78 days.
The Islamic Jihad’s Muhjat al-Quds Foundation for
Prisoners said in a press statement on Monday that the Israeli Supreme Court
had contented itself with issuing a recommendation to release Akhras on
November 26th despite calls for his immediate emancipation due to his
deteriorating health conditions.
Akhras rejected this recommendation and confirmed his
determination to continue his hunger strike until his definite release and
freedom.
The 49-year-old Palestinian prisoner faces extremely
dangerous health conditions after entering the third month of his strike as he
is unable to move and refuses to take supplements.
Akhras was detained on July 27, and was held under the
administrative detention, with no charge. This has led him to start a hunger
strike in an attempt to seek justice against the unfair detention.
Last week, the Commission of Palestinian Detainees and
Ex-Detainees said Akhras would only end his strike if he was released
immediately.
Akhras’ wife also announced a hunger strike and sit-in
outside the hospital in support of her husband, calling for his immediate
release.
Hundreds of Palestinian prisoners are under
administrative detention, in which Israel keeps the detainees for up to six
months, a period which can be extended an infinite number of times. Women and
minors are among these detainees.
Palestinian detainees have continuously resorted to
open-ended hunger strikes in an attempt to express their outrage at the
detention. Palestinians hold Israeli authorities fully responsible for any deterioration
of the circumstances in jails.
More than 7,000 Palestinians are reportedly held in
Israeli jails.
In May 2019, a study revealed that Israel had arrested
some 16,500 Palestinian children since the outbreak of the Second Intifada
(uprising) in late-2000.
In recent months and in the wake of the coronavirus
pandemic, several Palestinian prisoners have been infected in an Israeli
detention center amid mounting concerns about medical negligence by Israeli
authorities.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/12/636252/Israel-court-Palestinian-prisoner
--------
Spokesman: UN Arms Embargos against Iran to Expire at
Weekend to Inflict Historical Defeat on US
Oct 12, 2020
“The arms restrictions stated in resolution 2231 will
expire at 3:30 morning of October 18 (Tehran time),” Khatibzadeh told reporters
in a press conference in Tehran on Monday.
He described it as a historical defeat for Washington,
saying despite all its bullying, tricks and illegal measures, the US has failed
to attain its goal to extend the UN arms embargoes against Iran to indicate
that Washington has lost its power.
“The inadmissible arms restrictions which had been
imposed will be removed and Iran will act within the framework of a responsible
government in a defensive position and its international and regional
responsibilities,” Khatibzadeh said.
Earlier this month, Khatibzadeh had said that his
country would start arms deals with other countries once the UN embargoes
expire on October 18.
“Iran will act based on its right and needs and will
start its interactions on the same day that the arms restrictions end,”
Khatibzadeh told reporters in a press conference in Tehran.
He said that despite the difficulties posed by arms
sanctions against Iran in the past 40 years, the country’s young experts and
specialists have been able to produce different weapons and military equipment.
Asked about military trade between Iran and Russia,
Khatibzadeh said, “Certainly, the defense ministry will act based on its
needs.”
His comments came after Russian Ambassador to Tehran
Levan Dzhagaryan said that his country recognizes expiration of UN arms
sanctions against Iran on October 18 and is ready to supply the country with
its S-400 air defense system.
“We have said since the very first day that there will
be no problem for selling weapons to Iran from October 19,” Dzhagaryan said in
an interview with the Persian-language Resalat newspaper on Saturday.
He underlined that Russia does not fear the US threats
and will remain committed to its undertakings, adding that Moscow is ready to
study the Iranian side’s proposals on purchasing weapons from Russia after
October 18.
“As you know we have provided Iran with S-300. Russia
does not have any problem to deliver S-400 to Iran and it did not have any
problem before either,” Dzhagaryan said.
After the removal of pre-nuclear-deal sanctions
against Iran, Russia delivered S-300 air defense systems to the country under
the existing contract.
Iran designed and developed its own version of the
S-300 missile shield, named Bavar 373, after the Russians shrugged off delivery
of their advanced missile defense system to Iran on the pretext of the UN
Security Council sanctions.
The Iranian version has superior features over the
original Russian model as it enjoys increased mobility, agility and reduced
launch-preparation time.
Iranian commanders had earlier said that Bavar 373 is
similar to its original Russian model and traces and intercepts high-altitude
targets.
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990721000352
--------
Haniyeh: History will show no mercy for Arab traitors
to Palestine
13 October 2020
The head of the Hamas resistance movement’s political
bureau has once again condemned the US-brokered deals that the United Arab
Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain signed last month to normalize ties with Israel,
warning that history will show “no mercy” towards the Arab states that betrayed
fellow Palestinians.
In an interview with the Middle East Eye (MEE) news
portal published on Monday, Ismail Haniyeh said that the Arab countries that
made peace with Israel will be losers as the occupying regime will eventually
threaten them.
“The Zionist project is an expansionist project. Its
objective is to create a greater Israel. We don’t want to see the Emiratis or
the Bahrainis or the Sudanese being used as vehicles for this project. History
will show no mercy, the people will not forget, and humanitarian law will not
forgive,” he said.
In mid-September, US President Donald Trump presided
over the signing of the normalization pacts between Tel Aviv, Abu Dhabi and
Manama. During a ceremony at the White House, Trump said “five or six” other
countries were close to making similar agreements with Israel, but did not name
them.
Reports say Sudan and Oman could be next in line to
normalize with Israel.
“We know Israeli leaders better than them. We know how
they think. We would like to tell our brothers in the United Arab Emirates that
they will lose as a result of those agreements because Israel’s only interest
is to seek a military and economic foothold in areas close to Iran,” Haniyeh
said.
“They will use your country as a doorstep. We don’t
want to see the UAE being used as an Israeli launchpad,” he added.
Breakthrough in Hamas-Fatah reconciliation talks
Elsewhere in his remarks, the Hamas leader reported a
breakthrough in reconciliation talks aimed at forming a national unity
government with Ramallah-based Palestinian faction Fatah, led by President
Mahmoud Abbas.
“We witnessed positive changes on the ground. I do not
want to sound over-optimistic and pre-empt events but there are positive
things. The challenges are enormous and we are still at the beginning of the
road,” he said.
Haniyeh also referred to recent closed-door sessions
between Hamas and Fatah, saying, “What we hear from them in closed meetings is
that they stress the importance of Hamas taking part, because Hamas has a right
to be involved in the day-to-day running of the government.”
Hamas and Fatah are considering running a joint list
in Palestinian elections set to take place next year for the first time since
the 2006 vote that left Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip, he added.
Oslo Accords ‘failure from day one’
Meanwhile, Haniyeh stressed that Hamas had been
vindicated by the collapse of the 1990s Oslo peace process between the
Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel.
“From the day it was announced, Oslo bore the seeds of
its own destruction… Oslo was a failure from day one because it was a security
agreement, not a political one,” he said.
Oslo died when both its signatories, prime minister
Yitzhak Rabin and PLO leader Yasser Arafat, were killed, he noted.
“Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) himself, who engineered
Oslo, has announced abandoning Oslo and therefore, yes, we feel vindicated,”
Haniyeh said. “We could have saved time had the PA [the Palestinian Authority]
recognized early this disaster. Had it been overturned early on, we would have
saved our people from the miseries they endured. But better late than never.”
‘Nothing left for Abbas to bet on’
Additionally, the Hamas leader enumerated the factors
that had forced Abbas to rethink his approach towards the resistance group and
deliver a “positive response to the initiative by Hamas.”
“Firstly, nothing is left for Abu Mazen (Abbas) to bet
on. Secondly, Abu Mazen feels personally insulted by the Americans and the
Israelis. Thirdly, there was a decision by the Arab League to bypass the PLO
and make peace with Israel," he said.
Last month, the Arab League refused to approve a draft
resolution put forth by the Palestinian Authority that would condemn the
UAE-Israel normalization deal.
“In other words, the Palestinian Authority was no
longer necessary as a bridge for the Israelis to make peace with the Arabs,
while at the same time the PA felt abandoned by its Arab brothers, both
politically and financially,” he underlined.
Hamas ready for any Israeli war
Moreover, Haniyeh said Hamas was prepared in case of a
fresh Israeli attack on Gaza, warning that any future war would be costly for
the Tel Aviv regime.
“In six years [since the last major conflict in 2014],
Hamas’s capabilities are a lot better and we have surprises for the enemy. So
waging war is not an easy decision for Israel. It is going to be costly,” he
pointed out.
Touching on the seizure of Palestinian territory by
Israeli settlers, Haniyeh said, “The land belonged to us long before them.”
“We are talking about a land engraved in our history,
we are talking about Jerusalem (al-Quds), which was the first Qibla [direction
in prayers] for Muslims and was the place to which the Prophet Muhammad was
taken on a nightly journey [when Muslims believe he ascended to heaven]; we are
talking about the Palestinians who belonged to the land long before the
Zionists arrived from Europe,” Haniyeh said.
He also expressed the Palestinians’ resolve to
liberate their homeland from the Israeli occupation.
“We will never give up our homeland or concede any
part of it. We will spare no effort to liberate it, and what we cannot liberate
we will leave for future generations to liberate,” he explained.
“Even with Oslo, Israel showed it was not … in pursuit
of peace. The nature of the Zionist movement is to promote itself through
force. It does not respect human rights or the norms of international law.
Might is right for them,” he added.
US policy won’t change
Furthermore, Haniyeh described US President Donald
Trump as the worst leader in the American history, adding, however, that Hamas
was not holding its breath for a Joe Biden victory in the November election.
“US foreign policy does not change with the change of
the President. It's deeply entrenched in the US deep state. US foreign policy
is an institutional, not an individual matter,” he said.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/13/636277/Palestine-Hamas-Ismail-Haniyeh-UAE-Bahrain-Israel
IRGC forces kill 3 terrorists in western Iran along
Iraqi Kurdistan border
Monday, 12 October 2020
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) forces
have killed three terrorists during two “complicated” operations in the western
province of Kordestan, which borders Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
A statement by the IRGC’s Hamzeh Seyed al-Shohada Base
said on Monday that three terrorists were also injured in those operations,
which were carried out last week, in the cities of Kamyaran and Marivan.
It added that the IRGC forces also arrested one
terrorist of foreign nationality.
According to the statement, large quantities of
weapons, ammunition, and communication equipment were also seized from
terrorists.
The IRGC Ground Force said in September that it had
carried out a series of large-scale multi-pronged military operations against
positions of terror groups along the country’s northwestern borders.
Drones, artillery fire and smart missiles were used in
the operations, which killed and wounded a large number of key
counter-revolutionary elements active in the area.
IRGC forces regularly engage in clashes with
terrorists attempting to infiltrate the borders and carry out acts of sabotage
across the country.
Over the past years, the country’s Kordestan Province
has seen numerous cross-border incursions by Iraq-based terrorists.
A statement by the Hamzeh Seyed al-Shohada Base said
several “counter-revolutionary’ terrorists were killed during clashes in
Divandarreh County in May, without providing a specified number.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/12/636219/IRGC-Iran-Marivan-Kamyaran-Kordestan-Hamzeh-Seyed-al-Shohada-Base-terrorists
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Erdogan tells European Union that progress needed on
improving Turkey-EU ties
12 October 2020
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told European
Council President Charles Michel on Monday that progress was needed on
improving ties between Ankara and the bloc, the Turkish presidency said, amid
renewed tensions between Turkey and Greece over the eastern Mediterranean.
In a statement, the presidency said Erdogan told
Michel in a phone call that Turkey expected "concrete steps" from the
EU on holding a regional conference with eastern Mediterranean states, and that
Greece was "continuing steps to escalate tensions in the eastern
Mediterranean despite Turkey's well-intentioned approach".
The phone call comes after a Turkish ship set sail to
carry out seismic exploration in the eastern Mediterranean, prompting Greece to
issue a furious new demand for EU sanctions on Ankara in a row over offshore
exploration rights.
The European Union's executive said last week that
Turkey's government was undermining its economy, eroding democracy and
destroying independent courts, leaving Ankara's bid to join the EU further away
than ever.
Blaming "excessively" centralized
presidential power for deteriorating conditions in freedom of speech, prisons
and the central bank, the European Commission said the government was also
exposing Turkey to "rapid changes in investors' sentiment".
"The EU's serious concerns on continued negative
developments in the rule of law, fundamental rights and the judiciary have not
been credibly addressed by Turkey," the Commission said in its annual
report on the country.
"Turkey's (EU) accession negotiations have
effectively come to a standstill," it said.
A NATO ally, Turkey has been negotiating its EU
membership since 2005 after economic and political reforms that made it an
important emerging market economy and trade partner.
Although never easy because of disputed Turkish claims
over Cyprus, talks rapidly unraveled after a failed coup in Turkey in July 2016
and President Tayyip Erdogan's ensuing crackdown on perceived opponents.
"In Turkey, the serious backsliding observed
since the 2016 coup attempt continued," the Commission said.
There was no immediate comment from Turkey. Ankara has
said in the past that EU criticism is unfair and disproportionate.
Turkey has since faced several years of harsh
Commission reports, and the EU executive once again intensified its criticism,
citing monetary policy, public administration and widespread corruption as
failures of the Turkish government.
While the EU, Turkey's biggest foreign investor,
relies on the country to house some 4 million Syrians fleeing civil war rather
than let them proceed to Europe, Brussels also reiterated its threat to impose
economic sanctions on Ankara over an energy dispute in the Eastern
Mediterranean.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/10/12/Erdogan-tells-European-Union-that-progress-needed-on-improving-Turkey-EU-ties
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One fifth of Yemen’s population suffering from mental
health disorders: UNFPA
12 October 2020
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Yemen
says twenty percent of the population in the war-ravaged Arab country suffers
from mental health disorders, amid the ongoing Saudi-led military onslaught and
tight blockade.
The fund, in a statement released on the occasion of
World Mental Health Day, said that the number is based on a study carried out
by the Family Counseling and Development Foundation back in 2017, noting that
the figure is likely to have soared due to the coronavirus pandemic and
incessant Saudi-led airstrikes.
The statement added that the proportion of
psychiatrists per population is insufficient, while some of the few existing
mental health services have shut down as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The UNFPA then called for “greater investment” in
mental health, noting it is “most timely and opportune for Yemen as
humanitarian actors tackle the reduction of funding and challenges imposed by
COVID-19 that are hampering the scaling up of quality and specialized services
for mental health.”
Last December, Yemen’s Ministry of Human Rights warned
that the ongoing Saudi-led military onslaught against the impoverished and
conflict-ridden Arab country had taken a heavy toll on Yemeni children's mental
wellbeing, saying tens of thousands of minors suffer from persistent trauma and
psychological disorders there.
The ministry announced in a report at the time that
years of continuous conflict in Yemen have left a devastating impact on the
mental health of children, and that 80,000 kids suffer from post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD) and other related issues.
The report added that 9,835 civilians, including 800
children, have been paralyzed as a result of direct targeting of their houses
and places of residents by Saudi-led military aircraft.
The Yemeni ministry further highlighted that while 24
million and one hundred thousand people are in dire need of assistance,
including food, healthcare, water, accommodation and education, more than 70
thousand civilians, who are suffering from conditions that cannot be treated
inside Yemen, cannot receive required medication as the Saudi-led coalition
does not allow the opening of a humanitarian air bridge from Sana'a
International Airport.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies
launched the war on Yemen in March 2015, with the goal of bringing the
government of former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi back to power and crush
the popular Houthi Ansarullah movement.
The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data
Project (ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the
war has claimed more than 100,000 lives for over the past five years.
The Houthi Ansarullah movement, backed by armed
forces, has been defending Yemen against the Saudi-led alliance, preventing the
aggressors from fulfilling the objectives of their deadly campaign.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/12/636229/One-fifth-of-Yemen-population-suffers-from-mental-health-disorders-UNFPA
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Africa
Israel approves plan for immigration of 2,000
Ethiopian Jews
12 October 2020
Israel’s government on Monday approved immigration
plans for 2,000 Ethiopians whose desire to move to Israel has stirred
controversy and faced extended delays.
The group are members of the Falash Mura, descendants
of Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity – many under duress – in the
18th and 19th centuries.
They are not recognized as Jews by Israel’s Orthodox
rabbinical authorities, but claim the right to immigrate under family
reunification rules.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
The government approved about 9,000 claimants in 2015
but then rescinded the decision the following year, citing budgetary
constraints.
Some groups in Israel, including members of the
Ethiopian community, have opposed immigration of the Falash Mura, citing doubts
over their claim to be Jewish.
Netanyahu told his cabinet on Monday that it was time
to bring “2,000 of our people, our brothers and sisters from Ethiopia.”
“We will also act to bring all of the rest,” he said.
Integration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata, the first
Ethiopian Jewish woman elected to Israel’s parliament, praised the government’s
“unanimous vote to bring 2,000 people to Israel who are waiting in Ethiopia to
be united with their families.”
The bulk of Ethiopia’s Jewish community was brought to
the country between 1984 and 1991 under the Law of Return, which guarantees
Israeli citizenship to all Jews.
The Ethiopian-Israeli community has since grown to
140,000-strong, including 50,000 born in Israel.
Many say they faced racial discrimination, notably
abuse by Israel’s police.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/10/12/Israel-approves-plan-for-immigration-of-2-000-Ethiopian-Jews
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Jordan’s King Abdullah swears in new government led by
Khasawneh to speed reforms
12 October 2020
Jordan’s King Abdullah on Monday swore in a new
government led by veteran diplomat Bisher al-Khaswaneh that will seek to
accelerate IMF-backed reforms as the economy faces its sharpest contraction in
decades due to the coronavirus crisis.
British-educated al-Khasawneh, 51, was appointed on
Wednesday to replace Omar al-Razzaz, at a time of rising popular discontent
about worsening economic conditions and curbs on public freedoms under
emergency laws to contain the pandemic.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
The new premier, who comes from a family that has long
held senior political posts, has spent most of his public career as a veteran
diplomat and peace negotiator with Israel with a last stint as palace adviser.
Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi and Finance Minister
Mohamad al-Ississ, who oversees the country’s reform program with the
International Monetary Fund (IMF), kept their posts in a 32-member cabinet
dominated by a mix of technocrats and conservative politicians who held sway in
previous governments.
The new government faces an uphill task to revive
growth in an economy that is expected to shrink by around 6 percent this year
as it grapples with its worst economic crisis in many years, with unemployment
and poverty aggravated by the pandemic.
Khasawneh will oversee parliamentary elections due on
November 10. The contest will take place under an electoral law that
marginalizes the main Islamist opposition and independent political parties to
maintain a majority of pro-government deputies.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/10/12/Jordan-s-King-Abdullah-swears-in-new-government-led-by-Khasawneh-to-speed-reforms
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At least 11 migrants die as boat sinks off Tunisia’s
Sfax
12 October 2020
At least 11 migrants from Africa died when their boat
sank off Tunisia on Sunday, as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to the
Italian island of Lampedusa, a Tunisian security official said.
Tunisia’s coast guard recovered the bodies of eight
women and three children off the coast near Sfax late on Sunday, he said.
About 30 people had set out on the boat, aiming to
reach Italy, officials said.
The coast guard is searching for the other missing
people.
Last year, about 90 African migrants drowned after
their boat capsized en route to Europe from Libya, one of the worst such
accidents in Tunisian waters.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/north-africa/2020/10/12/At-least-11-migrants-die-as-boat-sinks-off-Tunisia-s-Sfax
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At least five killed, 16 injured in Algeria gas blast
10 October 2020
A gas explosion on Saturday killed five people and
injured 16 others in the western Algerian city of El Bayadh, the civil defense
said, adding that two houses were destroyed.
Rescuers sifted through the rubble of the two houses
levelled by the blast to search for other possible casualties, it said, adding
that six other homes were damaged.
Local media, citing an official from the electricity
and gas authority, said the explosion occurred when a pipeline delivering gas
to the area was damaged during construction work.
For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
The explosion caused a fire, according to footage
broadcast on television stations.
Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune sent the
ministers of health, energy and transportation to travel to El Bayadh, and
ordered an investigation into the blast, the APS news agency reported.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/north-africa/2020/10/10/At-least-five-killed-16-injured-in-Algeria-gas-blast
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North America
US launches airstrikes on Taliban in Afghanistan's
Helmand despite ‘peace’ deal
13 October 2020
The United States military has launched airstrikes
against Taliban positions in southern Afghanistan following a major offensive
by the militant group in the area and despite a “peace” deal between the two
sides.
“Over the past two days, US Forces-Afghanistan has
conducted several targeted strikes in Helmand to defend the Afghan National
Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) under attack by Taliban fighters,
consistent with the US-Taliban agreement,” said the spokesman for US
Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A), Col. Sonny Leggett, on Monday, referring to a
southern Afghan province.
He added that the US military would continue to
“provide support” to defend Afghan forces under attack by the Taliban.
The commander of the US and NATO forces in
Afghanistan, Gen. Scott Miller, demanded an immediate halt to the Taliban
offensive.
“The Taliban need to immediately stop their offensive
actions in Helmand Province and reduce their violence around the country. It is
not consistent with the US-Taliban agreement and undermines the ongoing Afghan
peace talks,” Miller said.
The US struck the deal with the Taliban in February,
after almost two decades of fighting the militants in Afghanistan. The deal
provides for the withdrawal of US-led foreign forces from Afghanistan in
exchange for security guarantees from the militants, and a pledge that they
hold talks with the Kabul government to find a peaceful settlement to their own
war.
Fighting has, however, continued despite several
rounds of peace talks between the Taliban and Afghan government in the Qatari
capital of Doha over the past month.
Commenting on the clashes in Helmand, Taliban
spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote in a Twitter post on Monday that the areas
captured by the group during their new offensive had been snatched from them a
few months earlier. “No new changes have occurred,” he claimed.
The latest fighting came just two days after at least
five people were killed in a Taliban roadside bomb attack in the Gereshk
district of Helmand.
According to local reports, clashes were still
continuing on the outskirts of the provincial capital city of Lashkargah,
forcing the displacement of hundreds of families.
‘Taliban not after enduring peace’
Reports also said that Afghan security forces had
retreated from their positions in the face of the Taliban offensive. Helmand
Police Chief Khalil-Ur-Rahman Jawad confirmed the reports, saying, “It was a
tactical retreat, but the Taliban has suffered casualties.”
Jawad said Afghan fighter jets had conducted
airstrikes against Taliban positions, killing 170 militants in the past 24
hours. He said security would be restored soon.
Afghan presidential spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said
during a Monday press conference in Kabul that reinforcements were being
deployed to Helmand to suppress the Taliban attack.
“Increase in attacks reveal that the Taliban
unfortunately is not accepting the demand of the people of Afghanistan, which
is an enduring peace,” he said.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/13/636275/US-launches-airstrikes-on-Taliban-in-Afghanistan-despite-peace-deal
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Trump administration pushes the US war on Iran into
high gear
13 October 2020
By Kevin Barrett
The Trump administration is pushing the US war on Iran
into high gear with these new ramped-up sanctions that are more extreme than
just about any sanctions anyone has ever applied anywhere.
These sanctions are now stopping basic medical
equipment from getting into Iran such as the Mepilex dressings from Sweden that
are used to treat wounds, serious wounds. Apparently, Trump and his Zionist
backers want Iranians to be wounded and not to heal. They want to inflict
horrific pain on ordinary Iranian people.
Why would they do that? Well, the Zionists obviously
have a sadistic personality disorder. They've perpetrated by far the worst
Holocaust ever in modern history by not only destroying Palestine but also
dragging the US into wars that have killed well over 10 million people. It's 27
million, according to Dr. Gideon Polya who's a Jewish scientist operating out
of Australia.
So this worldwide holocaust that was launched by the
Israeli-designed 9/11 false flag operation consisting of the murder of 3,000
Americans to trick the United States into using its military to destroy the
Middle East on behalf of Israel.
And again this is a holocaust far beyond anything
Hitler even dreamed of. And it's being perpetrated by Zionists. And yet, we're
not allowed to say that here in the United States, where all of the media
essentially is dominated as Philip Weiss, the former New York Times journalist
another Jewish fellow who tells the truth like Gideon Polya points out, is
under the control of Jewish Americans who have a soft spot in their hearts for
Israel, and skew all the news towards the Israeli perspective.
So Trump is acting under Israeli orders. He's acting
under Netanyahu's orders. He's trying maybe to get back in the good graces of
Netanyahu's biggest backer, the Kosher Nostra kingpin Sheldon Adelson and get
money for his reelection efforts.
So the US is really an Israeli occupied territory.
It’s waging a worldwide holocaust, and these criminal sanctions on Iran are the
latest and perhaps in some ways most extreme example.
I suppose Iranians can take heart in the fact that
Trump is not only killing Iranians by stopping basic medical care there and
worsening the crisis caused by the COVID pandemic among other things, but he's
done the same thing here in the United States and elsewhere.
The United States right now is on the brink of a new
Civil War thanks to both the crazy policies of Trump and the Zionist Kosher
Nostra that put him in office, and also the so-called opposition to Trump which
is also Zionist - the liberal Zionist opposition, consisting of the
billionaires who own the Democratic Party, who have been funding rioting and
arsons all over the country, among other things, working on a divide and
conquer strategy.
And so the US is going down too. Americans are going
to be suffering. And I suppose many people will say it's their karma, or it's
the retribution of God for what they've done. And I only pray to God that He
will have mercy on not just the criminals here; frankly—I'm not so interested
in that— but on all of the 300 million-plus Americans who've gone along with
the worst holocaust ever in human history, and who are just going about their
lives paying no attention as the US now forces Iranians with wounds to go
without bandages and stops other medical equipment from getting into Iran.
Ordinary Americans are responsible for this. It's not
just the Zionists who now occupy the United States. It's the ordinary Americans
who allowed them to take over the United States and turn it into Israeli
occupied territory. They are guilty too.
Dr. Kevin Barrett is an American author, journalist
and radio host with a Ph.D. in Islamic and Arabic Studies. He has been studying
the events of 9/11 since late 2003.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/13/636268/Trump-administration-pushes-the-US-war-on-Iran-into-high-gear
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British-born Isis suspects plead not guilty over
deaths of US hostages
9 Oct 2020
Two British-born men accused of belonging to a
notorious Islamic State kidnapping cell have pleaded not guilty in a US court
to charges of conspiring to murder four American hostages.
El Shafee Elsheikh, 32, and Alexanda Kotey, 36, were
flown to the US from Iraq on Wednesday to face trial for involvement in the
murders of the American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and relief
workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller.
Appearing from prison by videolink, they both pleaded
not guilty during a hearing in US district court in Alexandria, Virginia, and
waived their right to a speedy trial.
Judge TS Ellis described the case as “complex and
unusual” and set the next hearing for 15 January.
“Time is required in order to achieve the ends of
justice in this case,” Ellis said.
Besides the deaths of the four Americans, Elsheikh and
Kotey are also suspected of involvement in the killings of two Britons, Alan
Henning and David Haines, and several other hostages including two Japanese
nationals.
The two former British nationals had been in the
custody of US forces in Iraq since October 2019 after being captured in January
2018 by Syrian Kurdish forces.
Kotey and Elsheikh’s four-member Isis cell was dubbed
the “Beatles” by their captives due to their British accents.
They allegedly tortured and killed their victims,
including by beheading, and Isis released videos of the murders for propaganda
purposes.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/09/el-shafee-elsheikh-alexanda-kotey-isis-court-not-guilty-plea?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1604119_
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America needs to stop Iranian-controlled militias in
our hemisphere
10/09/20
BY ERIC R. MANDEL
Iranian-controlled Popular Mobilization Units (PMUs)
are coming to the Western Hemisphere. According to Radio Farda, Iranian
military commander Yahya Rahim Safavi, the former head of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps, is helping Venezuela to form PMUs and transferring
Iran’s experience to Venezuela to stand “against America.” In 2014, the Wall
Street Journal’s Mary Anastasia O’Grady
reported that the “West underestimates the growing threat from radical Islam
(Iran) in the Americas,” through an Iran-Cuba-Venezuela nexus, with the help of
regional allies Nicaragua, Bolivia and Ecuador.
PMUs are multinational Islamist militias under the
control of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which have helped Iran
project its power and influence beyond its borders and to dominate Iraq. They
have helped Syria’s Bashar al-Assad to remain in power. Iran and its terrorist
proxy Hezbollah, the model Iranian militia, have had decades-long involvement
in finding the soft underbelly of the United States’s South American neighbors
through narco-terrorism and support of anti-U.S. regimes.
According to Ambassador Nathan Sales, the State
Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism, “Hezbollah continues to have our
hemisphere squarely in its sights today.” For decades, Iran and Hezbollah have
used Latin America to transit drugs and support their terrorist activities.
These activities have contributed to the U.S. opioid epidemic but have been off
the radar of most Americans, who think Iran and its proxies’ nefarious
activities are confined to the Middle East.
Iran has nurtured and supported like-minded
revolutionary regimes, including Venezuela, and has a long history of terrorist
activity in South America going back to its bombing of the Israeli embassy and
Jewish center in Argentina in the early 1990s. A nuclear Iran will feel even
more emboldened to act in Central and South America, which is another reason
for the United States not to allow Iran to develop an industrial-size nuclear
weapons program.
If Iran is now trying to create real militias in South
America, as it has in the Middle East, this would be another escalation in its
war against America — this time in our own backyard. Iran has used Hezbollah,
especially since 9/11, to recruit and train terror cells in South America, but
militias are different and, over time, would add to their terrorist
armamentarium. Iran also has used nations such as Venezuela to help it bypass
American sanctions, receiving gold shipments in exchange for Iranian gasoline
shipments, such as arrived in Caracas in late September.
Dr. Emanuele Ottolenghi, senior fellow with the
Foundation for Defense of Democracies, testified before Congress in 2016 on
sanctions and illicit finance. He has warned: “Drug trafficking, trade-based
money laundering, and terror financing in Latin America have merged as a single
threat to the national security of the United States. … Hezbollah plays a
central role in this new landscape. … Tehran leverages connections with
anti-American regimes and movements to gain a foothold in the region, and to
indoctrinate local Muslims in its brand of revolutionary Islam.” In Venezuela
alone, there are about 200,000 Lebanese Shiite expatriates, fertile ground for
Iranian recruitment.
PMUs in the Middle East target American soldiers in
Iraq; support the Syrian government’s genocide of its civilians; attack
American allies such as the Iraqi Kurds; prevent the Iraqi government from
trying to remove the tentacles of Iranian dominance; and now may be on their
way to set up bases in our hemisphere. The idea of PMUs in our backyard should
be of great concern to U.S. national security experts.
Last year, the Organization of American States’ (OAS)
secretary general, Luis Almagro, said that “Iran and Hezbollah have a solid
base of operations in South America in alliance with the narco-dictatorship of
Nicolás Maduro. … If we fail to reign in Iran and Hezbollah in Venezuela, it
will represent a victory for terrorism, transnational organized crime, and
anti-Semitism.”
Iran is a revolutionary Islamist regime that will not
stop trying to probe any area of weakness to undermine American national
security interests. Although we have no appetite for overseas adventures,
economic sanctions may not be enough over time to stop Iran — especially if the
next U.S. administration follows former Secretary of State John Kerry, who
declared the death of the Monroe doctrine in 2013. The United States does need
the resolve to develop and enforce a modern-day Monroe doctrine, and must not
allow a foreign enemy nation such as Iran to radicalize the Western Hemisphere
and flood the Americas with terrorism.
Dr. Eric R. Mandel is the director of MEPIN, the
Middle East Political Information Network. He briefs members of Congress and
their foreign policy aides on the geo-politics of the Middle East. Follow him
on Twitter @MepinOrg.
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/519983-america-needs-to-stop-iranian-controlled-militias-in-our-hemisphere?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1604119_
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