New Age Islam News Bureau
24 October 2020
Police are investigating the precise circumstances
behind the threats.Photo: Jeremie Breaud/Twitter
-----
• OIC Blasts French Incitement against Muslims and Islam
with Terrorism
• Palestinians Sue Britain for 1917 Balfour
Declaration That Led To Creation Of Israel
• ‘New Stab in Palestine’s back’: Sudan Agrees to
Normalizes with Israel
• Kashmir's So-Called Politicians Sometimes Tend To Be
More Dangerous Than Identified Separatists: Union Minister
• FATF Keeps Pakistan off Blacklist for Now, Warns
That It Can’t Take Forever
• Buddhist Monk Calls On Bangladesh PM to Save Temple
and Monastery
• Muslim-Hindu-Christian Religious Leaders of
Malaysia: Let’s Play Our Part in Fighting Covid-19
Europe
• Jeremy Breaud, We Will Cut Your Head Off - French
Mayor Receives Threat of ‘Decapitation’ Just Week after Paty’s Murder
• US intervenes to help mediate solution between
Armenia, Azerbaijan
• EU welcomes ceasefire declaration in Libya, urges
quick implementation
-------
Arab world
• OIC Blasts French Incitement against Muslims and Islam
with Terrorism
• Lebanese Torch French Flag To Condemn Desecration Of
Prophet Muhammad
• NATO Says It Will Reinforce Iraq Mission to Help
Local Forces
• Syrian minister leads mourners for cleric Afiouni
assassinated in Damascus bombing
--------
Mideast
• Palestinians Sue Britain for 1917 Balfour
Declaration That Led To Creation Of Israel
• Sudan, Egypt, Jordan, UAE, Bahrain normalization is
part of new Sykes-Picot Agreement
• Iran: Israel Not in Position to Comment on Nuclear
Non-Proliferation
• Iran: US Unilateralism Jeopardizing Rule of Law in
World
• Turkey’s Erdogan says Libya ceasefire doesn’t seem
‘too achievable’
• Israel warplanes strike Hamas targets in Gaza Strip
following rocket fire
--------
Africa
• ‘New Stab in Palestine’s back’: Sudan Agrees to
Normalizes with Israel
• Sudan to designate Lebanon’s Hezbollah as terrorist
organization under Israel deal
• Libya rival sides agree to sign permanent ceasefire
deal: UN envoy
• Angry Sudanese rally to condemn normalization with
Israel
--------
India
• Kashmir's So-Called Politicians Sometimes Tend To Be
More Dangerous Than Identified Separatists: Union Minister
• Court Accepts Waqf Board’s Petition in Kashi
Vishwanath-Gyanvapi Mosque Case, Hearing on November 12
• Kashmir off the table for future talks, India
signals to Pakistan
• Scare on Delhi-Goa flight over ‘terrorists’ on board
• In Biden’s outreach to Indian Americans, a clear
reference to Chinese aggression and Pak
--------
Pakistan
• FATF Keeps Pakistan off Blacklist for Now, Warns
That It Can’t Take Forever
• No atmosphere for talks with India, says Pak foreign
minister
• PM terms meetings with opposition leaders ‘mistake’
• Geo reporter Ali Imran 'goes missing' in Karachi
• Opposition walks out of NA, says proceedings not
being run properly
--------
South Asia
• Buddhist Monk Calls On Bangladesh PM to Save Temple
and Monastery
• Taliban Attack Claims 22 ANA Members, Take Dozen
Hostage in Nimroz
--------
Southeast Asia
• Muslim-Hindu-Christian Religious Leaders of
Malaysia: Let’s Play Our Part in Fighting Covid-19
• China Not Committed To Curbing Terrorism but Using
Pak as Tool against India: Report
• Muslim groups urge governor to overturn loudspeaker
ban
• Indonesia Deports 4 Uyghur Terrorism Convicts to
China, Experts Say
--------
North America
• US Vows to Starve Hezbollah of Funds, Support On
Anniversary of 1983 Beirut Bombing
• US Democratic senators introduce bill to restrict
F-35 sales to UAE
• US suspends visa services in Turkey after reports on
potential attacks
• Chaos-hit US sanctions three Iranian entities over
election meddling claims
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/jeremy-breaud-cut-head-off/d/123254
--------
Jeremy Breaud, We Will Cut Your Head Off - French Mayor Receives Threat of ‘Decapitation’ Just Week after Paty’s Murder
23 October 2020
Police are investigating the precise circumstances
behind the threats.Photo: Jeremie Breaud/Twitter
-----
A French mayor said on Friday he had received threats
of having his head cut off -- just one week after the decapitation of
schoolteacher Samuel Paty shocked France.
“These threats must be taken seriously,” Jeremie
Breaud, the mayor of Bron near the major French city of Lyon, told BFM TV on
Friday, adding that he had received offers of police protection.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin expressed his
support for Breaud on Twitter, and also said the mayor would get police
protection.
Breaud posted on his Twitter account a photo of
graffiti on a wall in the town saying “Jeremy Breaud, we will cut your head
Off.” Police are investigating the precise circumstances behind the threats.
Paty was murdered on October 16 in broad daylight
outside his school in a middle-class Paris suburb by an 18-year-old of Chechen
origin. Police shot the attacker dead.
The teenager had sought to avenge his victim’s use of
caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in a class on freedom of expression.
Muslims believe that any depiction of the Prophet is blasphemous.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/10/23/French-mayor-receives-threat-of-decapitation-just-week-after-teacher-Paty-s-murder
--------
OIC Blasts French Incitement against Muslims and Islam
with Terrorism
24 October 2020
People hold placard reading "Islam = peace"
and "Muslims against terrorism" as they gather in Strasbourg, eastern
France, on October 18, 2020, in homage to history teacher Samuel Paty two days
after he was beheaded by an attacker who was shot dead by policemen. (Photo by
AFP)
------
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has
censured attempts by French politicians to link Muslims and the noble religion
of Islam with terrorism, amid growing anti-Islam sentiment due to hostile
policies adopted by the European state.
The General Secretariat of the OIC condemned in a
statement on Friday continued attacks and incitement against Muslim sentiment
and insults of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
The statement criticized the "discourse from
certain French politicians, which it deems to be harmful to the Muslim-French
relations, hate-mongering and only serving partisan political interests."
The OIC also said it "will always condemn
practices of blasphemy and of insulting Prophets of Islam, Christianity and
Judaism" as it condemned any crime committed in the name of religion.
The statement also denounced the killing of French
teacher Samuel Paty, who was decapitated last Friday in a Paris suburb, and
rejected the “incitement against Islam, its symbols and linking Islam and
Muslims with terrorism.”
The history teacher had raised controversy and
provoked anger over showing defamatory cartoons of Islam's Prophet Muhammad to
his students. Paty was murdered by an 18-year-old assailant, identified as
Chechen Abdullakh Anzorov, who was shot dead by police soon after the killing.
The OIC's condemnation came after France’s approval of
the publication of blasphemous cartoons of Prophet Muhammad, with the country’s
President Emmanuel Macron saying his country would not give up the insulting
cartoons.
The French president has in recent weeks attacked
Islam and the Muslim community, accusing Muslims of "separatism," and
claiming that "Islam is a religion in crisis all over the world."
The accusations coincided with a provocative move by
Charlie Hebdo, a left-wing French magazine infamous for publishing anti-Islam
content, which has drawn widespread anger and outrage across the Muslim world.
More than a dozen staff at Charlie Hebdo were killed
in January 2015 by armed gunmen. The murder was blamed on Muslims for what was
claimed to be a revenge for sacrilegious cartoons that condemned Islam.
This is while members of the Muslim community in
France and elsewhere in the world have consistently denounced such brutal acts,
describing them as going against the precepts of their religion.
The French interior ministry said a total of 73
mosques, private schools, and workplaces had been shut down since January “in
the fight against radicalization.”
Anti-Muslim sentiments have been on the rise across
Europe in recent years in the wake of terrorist attacks in the continent. The
attacks were carried out by the Daesh sympathizers or the terror group’s
members who had returned home following their defeat in Iraq and Syria.
Muslim leaders in Europe and around the world have
reiterated their unequivocal condemnation of the terrorist attacks.
Moreover, the rise of far-right ideology and the
propagation of anti-immigration policies have exacerbated the status of
religious minorities in Europe.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/24/637092/France-OIC-French-politicians-Muslims-Islam-terrorism
--------
Palestinians sue Britain for 1917 Balfour Declaration that led to creation of Israel
23 October 2020
Arthur Balfour, and the Balfour Declaration.
(Wikipedia)
------
Palestinian lawyers have lodged a complaint to sue the
British government for the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which set out London’s aim
to establish a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.
On Thursday, the lawyers took the measure in the
occupied northern West Bank city of Nablus, highlighting that “the suffering of
the Palestinians” emanated from the UK document.
“The Balfour Declaration is unacceptable. It was not
just a declaration, but a birth certificate for a regime with letters of shame
and injustice. It was a replacement tactic drawn by Britain in partnership with
Zionists, ignoring the rights of more than 93% of Palestinian people, and
granting the Jews, who at the time composed only 7% of the population, full
rights,” Munib al-Masri, head of the Federation of Independent and Democratic
Trade Unions, told a news conference in Ramallah.
He added, “The British mandate is at the root of the
suffering of the Palestinian people and has paved the way for the violation of
their rights and the plunder of their land.”
The complaint was filed on behalf of the International
Commission to Support Palestinian People's Rights and the Palestinian
Journalists' Syndicate in addition to the trade unions group.
The Balfour Declaration came in the form of a letter
from Britain’s then-foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, addressed to Lionel
Walter Rothschild, a figurehead of the British Jewish community. It was
published on November 2, 1917.
The declaration was made during World War I
(1914-1918), and was included in the terms of the British Mandate for Palestine
after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire.
It is widely seen as the precursor to the 1948
Palestinian Nakba, when Zionist armed paramilitary groups, who were trained and
created to fight side by side with the British in World War II, forcibly
expelled more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland, captured huge
swathes of the Arab land, and proclaimed existence of Israel.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/23/637038/Palestinians-sue-Britain-for-1917-Balfour-Declaration,-ensuing-suffering
--------
‘New stab in Palestine’s back’: Sudan agrees to normalizes with Israel
23 October 2020
Sudan’s transitional government has agreed to
normalize ties with the regime in Israel after the US removed the African state
from its terrorism blacklist and offered it financial aid in exchange.
President Donald Trump of the US sealed the
normalization deal in a phone call on Friday with Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and Transitional
Council Head Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.
A joint statement issued by the trio said the leaders
had agreed “to the normalization of relations between Sudan and Israel and to
end the state of belligerence” between the two sides.
An official signing ceremony is expected to be held at
the White House in the weeks to come.
Following the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain,
Sudan is the third Arab country to have been pushed by the United States into a
normalization deal with Israel since August.
In recent months, Trump, seeking re-election in early
November, has been scrambling to hammer out peace treaties between Arab
governments and Israel in order to portray them as foreign policy gains.
Both Israeli and US government figures have repeatedly
hinted since August — when the UAE announced normalization with Tel Aviv — that
other Arab countries would follow suit.
Announcing the deal on Friday, Trump said “at least
five more Arab states” wanted similar deals.
The latest development follows an agreement between
Sudan and the US, under which Washington agreed to remove Sudan from a list of
countries it calls state sponsors of terrorism, unblocking economic aid to and
investment in the African country.
US media cited sources as saying in late September
that Khartoum had been offered a large sum of cash aid by Washington in
exchange for establishing ties with Israel. The US and Sudan had been
negotiating the amount during the talks leading up to the deal
Shortly after the joint statement, Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the new agreements with Sudan the start of
“a new era” in the region.
He thanked Trump for setting the stage for the deal,
saying Israeli and Sudanese delegations would meet soon to discuss commercial
and agricultural cooperation.
The agreement is likely to spark outrage among the
public in Sudan, where pro-Palestine sentiment runs deep. Several street
protests had been held in recent weeks amid speculation of Khartoum’s imminent
normalization with Israel.
‘Sudan’s interim govt. has no mandate to normalize
with Israel’
Earlier on Friday, Sudan’s National Umma Party (NUP)
rejected any normalization with Israel, warning that it if such a thing
happens, the bloc will withdraw its support from the transitional government,
which took power last year after longtime leader Omar al-Bashir was overthrown
by the army.
The NUP’s leader, Sadiq al-Mahdi, said the
transitional government — which is to remain in office until elections in 2022
— has no mandate to make decisions on such controversial issues.
“We hope that all the institutions of the transitional
government abide by this position. We will withdraw our support for the
institutions of the transition if they establish relations with the apartheid
and occupation state,” he emphasized
‘Another stab in Palestine’s back’
Later on Friday, different Palestinian factions in the
Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank joined voices to condemn Sudan’s decision
to follow in the footsteps of the UAE and Bahrain and betray the Palestinian
cause against Israeli occupation.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the
Palestinians reject and condemn Sudan’s move, adding.
“No one has the right to speak in the name of the
Palestinian people and in the name of the Palestinian cause,” said a statement
published by Abbas’s office.
Speaking in Ramallah, senior Palestine Liberation
Organization official Wasel Abu Youssef said “Sudan’s joining others who
normalized ties with…the Israeli occupation represents a new stab in the back
of the Palestinian people and a betrayal of the just Palestinian cause.”
He added, however, that Khartoum’s treacherous move
“will not shake the Palestinians’ faith in their cause and in continuing their
struggle.”
In turn, the Gaza-based Hamas resistance movement said
the deal that Sudan struck with Israel is a “political sin” that harms both
Palestinians and Sudanese.
The accord “harms our Palestinian people and their
just cause, and even harms the Sudanese national interests,” the statement
said. “It benefits only Netanyahu.”
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum also called decision a
step in the “wrong direction.”
Meanwhile, the Islamic Jihad resistance movement, also
based in Gaza, said in a sparate statement that Sudan had tarnished its
reputation by normalizing ties with the Zionist regime.
The deal will pose a threat to Sudan’s future and
identity, said the group, describing the agreement as a betrayal of the Arab
Ummah and its long-held consensus on supporting the cause of fellow
Palestinians against occupation.
Historically, Arab countries agreed that no ties
should be established with Israel unless it withdraws from the territories it
occupied in the 1967 war and the establishment of a Palestinian state with East
Jerusalem (al-Quds) as its capital.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/23/637069/Sudan-agrees-to-normalize-ties-with-Israel
--------
Kashmir's So-Called Politicians Sometimes Tend To Be
More Dangerous Than Identified Separatists: Union Minister
Oct 23, 2020
NEW DELHI: After People's Democratic Party (PDP) chief
Mehbooba Mufti said she will raise the Indian tricolour when the "flag of
Jammu and Kashmir" is brought back, Union minister Jitendra Singh on
Friday said that "the so-called politicians of Kashmir sometimes tend to
be more dangerous than apparently identified separatists."
"Mehbooba Mufti claims to be a mainstream
politician but she has reservations in carrying the tricolour. We have
maintained for last several years that Kashmir's so-called politicians
sometimes tend to be more dangerous than apparently identified
separatists," the Union Minister told ANI.
Singh added: "They have cultivated the art and
craft of swearing by Mother India saying 'Bharat Mata ki Jai' when in power.
Once they are out of power they start swearing by Pakistan and questioning the
integration of Jammu and Kashmir."
Singh said that abrogation of Article 370 happened
with the resolution passed by Parliament of India and the prerogative of
retaining or not retaining it lies with Parliament and President, not with
Jammu and Kashmir and Kashmir Valley alone.
Earlier in the day, Mufti lashed out at the Centre for
abrogating Article 370 and said that she will raise the Indian tricolour when
the "flag of Jammu and Kashmir" is brought back.
"My flag is this (points to the flag of J&K
kept on the table in front of her). When this flag comes back, we will raise
that flag (tricolour) too. Until we get our own flag back, we won't raise any
other flag...This flag forged our relationship with that flag. Our relationship
with the flag of this country is not independent of this flag (Jammu and
Kashmir's flag). When this flag comes in our hand, we will raise that flag
too," she said.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/kashmirs-so-called-politicians-sometimes-tend-to-be-more-dangerous-than-identified-separatists-jitendra-singh/articleshow/78832269.cms
--------
FATF keeps Pakistan off blacklist for now, warns that
it can’t take forever
Rezaul H Laskar
Oct 23, 2020
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on Friday
decided to retain Pakistan on its “grey list”, giving it time till February
next year to address what the multilateral watchdog said were “very serious
deficiencies” in its efforts to counter terror financing.
The decision was announced at the end of FATF’s
three-day virtual plenary meeting, and the body’s president, Marcus Pleyer,
cautioned that Pakistan would not be given a chance “forever” to address
outstanding issues. Repeated failure to deliver on FATF’s action plan would
result in a country being put in the “black list”, he said.
Pakistan was placed in FATF’s list of “jurisdictions
under increased monitoring” or grey list in 2018 for failing to control terror
financing and money laundering. In a virtual repeat of the warning issued to
Pakistan in February, FATF said in a statement: “As all action plan deadlines
have expired, the FATF strongly urges Pakistan to swiftly complete its full
action plan by February 2021.”
Pleyer, at a virtual news conference, said Pakistan
had “largely addressed” 21 of 27 items in its action plan and the government
had signalled its commitment to complete the rest.
“But it is clear [that] even though Pakistan has made
progress, it needs to do more. Pakistan cannot stop, it needs to continue to
carry out reforms, particularly to implement targeted financial sanctions and
prosecute and sanction those financing terrorism,” he said.
The work done by Pakistan “definitely means the world
has become safer but the six outstanding items are very serious deficiencies
that still have to be repaired, and for that reason, the risks [have not been
overcome]”, Pleyer added.
In an apparent reference to Pakistan’s repeated
failures to meet deadlines for the action plan, Pleyer said: “As long as we see
that the country is progressing with the action items, and we have seen
progress with Pakistan, we give them a chance to repair the outstanding issues
but we don’t do this forever.”
He added, “You can look at other countries where after
a while, we have seen there is no longer progress on the action plan and the
action plan has not been completed, then the countries are pushed to the black
list.”
Pleyer made it clear Pakistan wouldn’t be out of the
woods with mere completion of the action plan. Once FATF’s plenary agrees that
all 27 items had been completed, there will be an on-site visit by an
assessment team to verify information given by Pakistan and see that all
measures are working effectively.
“After that on-site visit, the next plenary will then
decide whether Pakistan has indeed fully and effectively completed the action
plan and then there is a decision on whether Pakistan would leave the grey list
or not,” he said.
Besides, Pleyer cautioned that Pakistan is also
subject to an evaluation by FATF’s regional affiliate, the Australia-based Asia
Pacific Group.
In its latest report issued in September, APG
concluded Pakistan has fully complied with only two of 40 recommendations to
counter terror financing and money laundering, and that it was “non-compliant”
on four recommendations, “partially compliant” on 25 and “largely compliant” on
nine.
FATF’s statement said Pakistan should continue
addressing its “strategic deficiencies”, including demonstrating that law
enforcement agencies are identifying and investigating the widest range of
terror financing activity and that investigations and prosecutions target
designated persons and entities.
Pakistan should demonstrate that terror financing
prosecutions result in “effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions”, and
it should show “effective implementation of targeted financial sanctions”
against terrorists designated by the UN Security Council and those acting on
their behalf by preventing the raising and transferring of funds, identifying
and freezing assets, and prohibiting access to funds and financial services.
Islamabad should also demonstrate enforcement and
action against non-profit organisations, which are often used as fronts by
Pakistan-based terror groups, the statement said.
Pleyer brushed aside a question on whether Pakistan is
being discriminated against by saying the country is being treated in line with
the same rules that have been accepted by 205 countries globally. He also
dismissed a question from a Pakistani body about the alleged involvement of
Indian banks in terror financing, saying FATF isn’t an investigative body.
Sameer Patil, fellow for international security
studies at Gateway House, said the six action items FATF is pressuring Pakistan
to implement are the “most crucial ones that will help finish off the terror
groups”.
“Pakistan has was hoping to convince the watchdog to
remove it from the grey list but FATF has taken a more serious view and asked
Pakistan to go full throttle and terminate the state’s support to terror
groups, which Pakistan will find difficult to do given the history of these
groups being used as proxies by the army,” he said.
“Implementing the full action plan won’t be easy
because of the fear of retribution from these terror groups. We can expect Pakistan
to enact more dramas, such as a crackdown and prosecution of terrorists, before
the next FATF meeting,” he added.
There was no immediate reaction to FATF’s decision
from Indian officials.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/fatf-keeps-pakistan-off-blacklist-for-now-warns-that-it-can-t-take-forever/story-t2v3AQXgichIlOZriQaBBJ.html
--------
Buddhist monk calls on Bangladesh PM to save temple
and monastery
October 23, 2020
A Bangladeshi Buddhist monk has pleaded to Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina to save a Buddhist temple, monastery, and local Buddhist
community from political-Islamist propaganda and land grab threats.
The appeal was made in a video message circulated on
Facebook by Bhante Saranangkar Thero, a Buddhist monk and principal of Gayanasarana
monastery in Rangunia, southeastern Chittagong district.
“It has been four months since the crisis started at
Rangunia and it is getting worse. A group of opportunist people has been trying
to defame and ostracize a simple Buddhist monk, which is a disgrace. I would
like to bring the matter to the attention of our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina,”
the monk said Oct. 20.
Since July, Islamist hardliners allegedly instigated
by local politician Ershad Mahmud, have been demanding punishment for the monk
accusing him of defaming Islam on Facebook.
Bhante Saranagkar has been in hiding since then.
Ershad Mahmud is the younger brother of Dr. Hasan
Mahmud, information minister of the ruling Awami League government.
Secularists and rights activists said the attack on
the monk is part of a conspiracy to grab the land of the local Buddhist temple
and monastery.
A doctored Facebook page was created and anti-Muslim
posts were circulated to target the monk, they claimed.
The monk alleged that conspirators have been abusing
power and exploiting the name of the ruling party of PM Hasina in order “to
build up mountains of corruption, to destroy communal harmony and to establish
a reign of terror.”
He termed this as an attack on the religious harmony,
peace, and the pluralist culture of Bangladesh.
Charges against the monk and blogger
The attempted land grab by defaming the monk was first
exposed on social media by Asad Noor, an India-based Bangladeshi atheist
blogger.
Noor was charged by a leader of the student front
ruling Awami League on July 14 under Bangladesh’s draconian Digital Security
Act (DSA) for hurting the religious sentiments of Muslims with his posts.
In his absence, police allegedly detained and harassed
his family for hours before letting them go after criticism at home and abroad.
Bhante Saranagkar has been charged in a series of
lawsuits including two cases under the DSA for hurting the religious sentiments
of Muslims, local police officials confirmed.
Masudur Rahman, chief government officer in Rangunia,
said the situation is calm in Rangunia but there are sporadic protests and
human chains by local people against the monk.
“We have met and talked with leaders of various faiths
and told them not to do anything that can hurt religious sentiments of anyone
and destroy harmony. We are not aware about the location of Bhante Saranagkar
and it is true he has been charged in a series of cases,” Rahman told UCA News.
A similar pattern of oppression
Bangladesh is a pluralist country but sectarianism has
crept into sections of people that pose dangers for minorities, said Holy Cross
Father Liton H. Gomes, secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Justice and Peace
Commission.
“There are vested quarters in various places who abuse
the name of the ruling party to make personal gains by attacking minority
communities. In the case of Rangunia, the government needs to be sincere to
solve the crisis before it’s too late,” Father Gomes told UCA News.
“It is not an isolated incident but a part of a
conspiracy by opportunists and it must be stopped. Otherwise, one-day
minorities will become refugees and migrants,” the priest noted.
In recent years, Bangladesh has seen abuse of fake
Facebook accounts to perpetrate attacks against religious minorities.
Muslim mobs destroyed 19 Buddhist temples and about
100 houses in Ramu, Cox’s Bazar and Patiya of Chittagong after a Buddhist man
allegedly defamed Islam on Facebook in 2012.
In 2013, Muslims vandalized 26 Hindu houses in
Santhiya in Pabna district, for Facebook posts defaming Islam, allegedly
circulated by a 10th-grader Hindu boy.
In 2016, Hindus in Nasirnagar, Brahmanbaria district
and in 2017, Hindus in Thakur Para, Rangpur district came under attack over
Facebook posts allegedly made by Hindu men that defamed Islam.
https://www.ucanews.com/news/buddhist-monk-calls-on-bangladesh-pm-to-save-temple-and-monastery/90005#
--------
Muslim-Hindu-Christian Religious Leaders of Malaysia:
Let’s Play Our Part in Fighting Covid-19
Nicholas Chung
October 23, 2020
PETALING JAYA: With houses of worship in some states
closed in view of the surging Covid-19 cases, religious leaders have called for
all Malaysians to continue playing their role to battle the pandemic.
Malaysian Hindu Sangam president RS Mohan Shan said
Hindus are in the midst of celebrating the nine-day long Navarathri festival.
The festival started on Oct 17 and will end on Oct 26.
He expressed sadness over toned-down celebrations and in having to see some
temples closed with the spike in cases.
Nevertheless, he stressed that the safety of the public
was more important and encouraged people to take care of themselves and
practise the new norms of physical distancing, wearing masks and constantly
sanitising their hands.
“I request fellow devotees to be calm and accept the
situation. Especially to those in the Klang Valley and also in Sabah, be calm
as there’s nothing to worry about.
“Take care of yourself, your family and do your
prayers at home,” he told FMT, adding that devotees could also take part in
prayers virtually.
Penang mufti Wan Salim Wan Mohd Noor said Muslims who
deliberately disobeyed the government’s orders, whether on wearing masks or
staying at home during quarantine, were akin to committing sin.
“In Islam, it is mandatory for people to obey the
authorities concerning things that are good and beneficial. What more if their
disobedience can cause the virus to infect others and harm them.
“Let’s not be the agent that spreads Covid-19. It’s
imperative for us to appreciate those who have fought and sacrificed their
lives in fighting the virus on the frontlines to preserve the lives of
Malaysians,” he told FMT.
He said the authorities have been working tooth and
nail to combat the pandemic, adding that it was the responsibility of the
government to protect the people.
Council of Churches Malaysia (CCM) secretary-general
Hermen Shastri said the whole nation was in this together, agreeing with Wan
Salim on how the health ministry has been working hard for the country.
He advised Malaysians to play their part in breaking
the Covid-19 chain of transmission by constantly practising new norms and
avoiding crowded areas.
“In view of the conditional movement control order
(CMCO), we must uphold those who are sick, lonely, unemployed, financially
burdened and others in our prayers.
“Checking up on such people we know, or, by making
donations to organisations that are helping such vulnerable people, should be
encouraged,” he told FMT.
He said times like these also give the opportunity for
people to reflect on how to build a sustainable society with laws that
prioritise health and also protect the environment.
The three religious leaders urged Malaysians to keep
praying for the nation and also frontliners, who put their lives on the line
daily for the sake of the people.
“Let us pray together that God will bless them for
their sacrifices, as they fight for our health and safety,” Wan Salim said.
For more information on embracing the new norms during
this pandemic, please click here.
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2020/10/23/lets-play-our-part-in-fighting-covid-19-say-religious-leaders/
--------
Europe
US intervenes to help mediate solution between
Armenia, Azerbaijan
23 October 2020
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday met his
counterparts from Armenia and Azerbaijan but there were no signs of progress in
halting an eruption of fighting over contested Nagorno-Karabakh.
Pompeo shook hands and exchanged pleasantries but made
no substantive remarks in separate meetings an hour apart at the State
Department with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov and Armenian
Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan.
For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
The foreign ministries in both Yerevan and Baku had
ruled out a three-way meeting in Washington and Bayramov was seen leaving
shortly before Mnatsakanyan arrived.
Bayramov said he told Pompeo that the “Armenian
occupation must end” of Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region recognized
internationally as part of Azerbaijan that is controlled by Armenian
separatists backed by Yerevan.
“We are committed to finding a political solution (to)
the conflict and ready to resume substantive talks immediately,” Bayramov said
in a statement after the talks.
“Armenia must stop avoiding meaningful negotiations
and choose lasting peace,” he said.
Small groups of rival protesters backing Armenia and
Azerbaijan confronted one another with slogans and signs outside the State
Department, with a Diplomatic Security officer in a mask standing between them.
Ahead of the talks, Pompeo kept expectations in check,
noting that previous ceasefires have not held.
“It’s a complicated diplomatic situation,” Pompeo told
reporters on Wednesday.
“Our view remains, as does the view of nearly every
European country, that the right path forward is to cease the conflict, tell
them to de-escalate, that every country should stay out, provide no fuel for
this conflict, no weapons systems, no support,” he said.
“It is at that point that a diplomatic solution that
would be acceptable to all can potentially be achieved.”
Russia has been in the forefront of diplomacy between
the two former Soviet republics.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that
the death toll was nearing 5,000 in the worst flare-up in Nagorno-Karabakh in
more than two decades.
The United States has officially voiced neutrality and
is a co-chair of the so-called Minsk group with Russia and France on
Nagorno-Karabakh.
Pompeo, however, recently characterized Armenia’s
actions as defensive and has criticized the involvement of Turkey, a staunch
ally of Azerbaijan.
The United States has a large and politically active
Armenian diaspora but also strategic ties with Azerbaijan, a rare Muslim-majority
nation to have strong relations with Israel.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/10/23/US-intervenes-to-help-mediate-solution-between-Armenia-Azerbaijan
--------
EU welcomes ceasefire declaration in Libya, urges
quick implementation
23 October 2020
The European Commission welcomed the declaration of a
ceasefire in Libya on Friday and called for it go into immediate effect and for
peace talks to resume.
“The agreement of a permanent ceasefire is key for the
resumption of a political dialogue,” EU foreign policy spokesman Peter Sano
told reporters.
“It’s very important, as well, to see this accord put
into effect.”
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app
Earlier, Libya’s main factions -- the government in
Tripoli and a rival eastern administration -- had emerged from five days of
talks at the UN in Geneva.
They had signed what the UN’s envoy to Libya described
as “a complete, countrywide and permanent ceasefire agreement with immediate
effect.”
Libya has been wracked by conflict for nearly a
decade, since the overthrow and killing of dictator Moamer Gaddafi in a
NATO-backed uprising.
Since then, the North African country has been
dominated by armed groups, riven by local conflicts and divided between the two
bitterly opposed administrations.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/north-africa/2020/10/23/EU-welcomes-ceasefire-declaration-in-Libya-urges-quick-implmentation
--------
Arab world
Lebanese torch French flag to condemn desecration of Prophet Muhammad
24 October 2020
Lebanese youths have set fire to France’s national
flag in a show of anger at the projection of offensive cartoons of Islam’s
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) onto government buildings in the European country.
They torched the flag during a protest outside the
French embassy in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, on Friday.
The demonstration came two days after the blasphemous
cartoons of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), published by the French satirical
newspaper Charlie Hebdo, were displayed onto town halls in Montpellier and
Toulouse for several hours.
The measure was part of a tribute to history teacher
Samuel Paty, who raised controversy and provoked outrage by showing Charlie
Hebdo’s insulting sketches to his students.
He was murdered outside his school in a Paris suburb
on October 16 by an 18-year-old assailant, identified as Chechen Abdullakh
Anzorov, who was shot dead by police soon after the killing.
Since then, French police have raided Muslim houses
and mosques and arrested more than a dozen individuals as part of an
investigation into the incident.
President Emmanuel Macron described Paty as a “quiet
hero” and posthumously awarded him the Légion d'Honneur, France’s highest
civilian honor.
The Lebanese youths are also angry with Macron’s interference
in the domestic affairs of their homeland, which gained independence from the
French colonial rule more than seven decades ago.
Macron has visited Lebanon twice since the August 4
explosion in the port of Beirut that killed nearly 200 people and caused
billions of dollars in damage.
During the trips, he called for a “new political pact”
among Lebanese political factions and proposed a roadmap to authorities to
unlock billions of dollars in funds from the international community.
In a meeting with President Michel Aoun, Macron
threatened Lebanese leaders with sanctions if they did not submit to reforms
and a “political change,” Lebanon's Arabic-language al-Mayadeen television news
network reported.
On Thursday, Aoun tapped Saad Hariri, the embattled
former prime minister who stepped down late last year amid protests, to again
try to form a new government that can lift the country out of its worst
economic crisis in decades.
Hariri vowed to form “a cabinet of non-politically
aligned experts with the mission of economic, financial and administrative
reforms contained in the French initiative roadmap.”
"I will work on forming a government quickly
because time is running out," he added, calling it the country's
"only and last chance.”
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/24/637095/Lebanon-France-protest-Prophet-Muhammad-cartoons
--------
NATO says it will reinforce Iraq mission to help local
forces
24 October 2020
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday a
meeting of western military alliance defense ministers had agreed to expand its
training mission in Iraq to help Iraqi forces fight extremism.
“While the security situation remains challenging,
NATO remains committed to stepping up our support,” said Stoltenberg after a
two-day defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
“Our aim is to help build self-sustaining Iraqi forces
able to fight terrorism, prevent the return of ISIS, and stabilize their
country,” added Stoltenberg, citing a “concerning” rise in the number and
sophistication of attacks against international forces in Iraq.
NATO maintains a 500-strong training mission in the
country to prepare local forces in the event of attacks from Islamic State
extremists.
Stoltenberg said the scope of the mission’s upgrading
would be decided at a meeting of alliance defense ministers in February.
Anti-US sentiment spiked anew in Iraq following the
January killing of powerful Iranian military commander Major General Qassem
Soleimani in a US airstrike near Baghdad, leading to a suspension of NATO
training of Iraqi forces.
The Covid-19 pandemic also forced the alliance to dial
down numbers earlier this year but the mission has since returned to full
capacity, Stoltenberg said.
Turning to Afghanistan, Stoltenberg urged the Taliban
to reduce “unacceptable levels of violence” and break ties with violent groups.
But he also betrayed concern over last week’s US
announcement that the American troop contingent will be cut to around 2,500
early next year – despite the potential impact on peace negotiations between
the Afghan government and Taliban insurgents.
Both sides’ original understanding was that Washington
would not fully withdraw prior to a solid deal between the two sides.
“The negotiations in Doha are fragile, but they are
the best chance for peace in a generation. And all Afghans should seize this
historic opportunity,” said Stoltenberg, cautioning that “the next months are
decisive for Afghanistan.
“NATO backs the peace process. And we have adjusted
our presence to support it,” scaling its troop presence back to less than
12,000 from more than one hundred thousand.
“We decided to go into Afghanistan together; we will
make decisions about future adjustments together; and we will leave together,
when the time is right,” Stoltenberg insisted.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/10/24/NATO-says-it-will-reinforce-Iraq-mission-to-help-local-forces
--------
Syrian minister leads mourners for cleric Afiouni assassinated
in Damascus bombing
23 October 2020
Hundreds of mourners including Syria’s religious
affairs minister attended a funeral in Damascus on Friday for the state’s top
Muslim cleric, who was killed in a bombing near the capital.
Sheikh Mohammed Adnan Afiouni, the Sunni Muslim Mufti
of Damascus who was close to President Bashar al-Assad, died on Thursday when
his car was targeted with an explosive device in the countryside near Damascus.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
Afiouni played a large part in what the government
describes as reconciliation efforts with armed groups who seized control of
several Damascus suburbs during the country’s nine-year-long civil war, but who
were then driven back by government forces.
He was a leading conservative scholar who preached
against Sunni radicalism and the Muslim Brotherhood, which took up arms against
the current president’s father, Hafez al-Assad.
“He helped to consolidate (the Assad family) grip on
power during the fight against the Muslim Brotherhood and later the Salafi
trends,” said Waeil Olwan, a political scientist and scholar in the
Istanbul-based al Jusoor think tank that focuses on Syrian studies.
The 66-year-old cleric described the Syrian uprising
as one of “destruction, chaos and terrorism,” Alwan added.
Syria’s Minister of Endowments Mohammed Abdul Sattar
al-Sayed was among hundreds of worshippers who gathered at the Syrian capital’s
ancient Ummayad Mosque for Afiouni’s funeral.
Pictures from the funeral showed the masked minister
paying condolences to Sheikh Afiouni’s son, alongside the son of another slain
cleric Mohammed al-Buti, the government-appointed of the Ummayad mosque who
died in a 2013 bombing.
Afiouni headed the Cham Islamic Centre to fight
Terrorism and Extremism that trains hundreds of clerics and mosque imams before
their employment by the state.
He also led prayers which Assad attended in the town
of Daraya after it was recaptured in 2016 from rebels after bombardment that
killed hundreds and displaced thousands.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/10/23/Syrian-minister-leads-mourners-for-cleric-Afiouni-assassinated-in-Damascus-bombing
--------
Mideast
Sudan, Egypt, Jordan, UAE, Bahrain normalization is
part of new Sykes-Picot Agreement
23 October 2020
By Robert Inlakesh
Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and political
analyst, who has lived in and reported from the occupied Palestinian West Bank.
He has written for publications such as Mint Press, Mondoweiss, MEMO, and
various other outlets. He specializes in the analysis of the Middle East, in
particular Palestine-Israel. He also works for Press TV as a European
correspondent.
The Sudanese regime is now set to normalize ties with
Israel, adding it to the list of normalizers along with Jordan, Egypt, UAE, and
Bahrain. Of course, integral to this club of “traitors” as they’ve been dubbed
by many, is the Saudi regime, which is reportedly footing the bill for Sudan to
allow it to quickly normalize ties with Israel. So is this normalization about
“peace” or in fact Western domination, a plot to confront Iran and money?
The so-called “peace” deals struck between Israel and
Arab regimes have been manufactured specifically to serve both Western
strategic interests and finance. The initial signing of what was called the
‘Abraham Accords’, where the UAE and Bahrain had signed onto normalize ties,
can be linked to short and long-term strategic goals in the Middle East.
The short term for Israel and the US was achieving a political
victory on behalf of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Premier Benjamin
Netanyahu. Netanyahu needed a way to hold off on his promise of a de-jury
annexation of the West Bank and Trump needed a win to make himself appear to
the US public as having achieved a major political breakthrough in the Middle
East.
Also, it is clear that there is a financial and
military benefit involved in the so-called peace deals. Bahrain to a lesser
extent evidently will allow for tourism and investment into the country,
although the monetary gain is not as significant as it is in the case of the
UAE. The UAE delegation, which arrived in Ben-Gurion airport this week,
announced, alongside Israeli politicians, an agreement to sell Emirati crude,
transporting it from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. Also announced was that
Israelis will be permitted to travel to the UAE without having to even obtain a
visa, something which is of course not granted to Palestinians.
The pipeline, set to be used for the transport of Emirati
crude, was seized illegally by Israel, from Iran, and it was ruled by a Swiss
court in 2016 that Israel must pay at least 1 billion in damage to Iran, which
they refused to pay. In addition to this, the UAE is now set to obtain some of
the most cutting-edge US and Israeli military hardware.
In the case of Bahrain, it has been revealed that a
secret Israeli embassy may have existed in the country for over 11 years,
indicating again that the deal signed was not a peace deal. In the case of the
UAE, it is also clear that Israel has collaborated with it in various
countries, including the likes of Libya and Yemen.
The use of a monetary gain incentive for normalization
is no new thing, as it may appear, however. The history behind both Egypt and
Jordan having signed “peace” agreements with Israel followed a very similar
model. Egypt, which normalized ties in 1979, did so with the backing of the
full might of the US’s foreign aid program, which donated more in the year on
which the agreement was signed to Egypt, than any other country on earth. In
fact, the US managed to not only deliver foreign aid to Egypt but also capture
it as an asset as the foreign aid money until this day still allows for the US
to keep the country in a headlock. In the case of Jordan’s normalization deal,
signed in 1994, also came financial incentive, as it did for Egypt during years
of former President, Hosni Mubarak, in the form of pipelines and trade.
Now the two main components of this era of
normalization deals, are Saudi Arabia and the UAE. It is more than likely that
Saudi Arabia, with its control over affairs in Bahrain, used the Bahraini
regime as a testing ground to see what would happen before it signed anything
and created unwanted problems. Also, Saudi Arabia has just pledged to foot the
bill of 335 million to the United States - which was demanded from the US for
the deaths of US citizens on Sudanese soil - on behalf of Sudan for its move to
normalize ties with Israel.
The United Arab Emirates too has been instrumental in
pressuring the Sudanese regime, led currently by interim Prime Minister Abdalla
Hamdock, who was installed by the Sovereignty Council, whilst the country is
allegedly to transition to democracy. The current affairs of Sudan are heavily
influenced by the UAE, so much so that some analysts have accused the UAE of
being behind the manufacturing of Sudan-Israel normalization.
Where is normalization heading?
A sharp political mind would look past the official
signings of normalization deals and take this all as part of a wider political
agenda. When we combine the actions of the Sudanese, Egyptian, Jordanian,
Emirati, and Bahraini regimes, putting into consideration that Saudi Arabia and
other Persian Gulf Arab regimes are also part of this axis, we can see that this
block is acting for a very specific purpose. That purpose is a reshaping of the
Middle East, in terms of forming a strong pro-Western axis of undemocratic
regimes that aim to completely decimate the Middle East’s resistance to Western
Imperialism.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Sudan, UAE, and
others have been for some time servants to the West and have worked militarily,
monetarily and through their intelligence apparatus to destroy Arab
Independence, at the forefront of this struggle being the Palestinian National
Liberation Movement.
Strong economic and military ties, now sealed in
“peace agreements”, represent a bowing of Arab Leadership to Western power. The
Arab Peace Initiative, that being the idea of Land for Peace (or a two-state
solution), has been officially dissolved and with it the functionality of the
Arab League.
The Palestine Liberation Organization made the mistake
of succumbing to Western power and money, leading them to the situation they
find themselves in today, betrayed, without land and having created the
Palestinian Authority (PA) to achieve financial success. The PA now sees what
happens when you seal a deal with the West and so is scrambling to try and get
a better deal, or at least form some sort of national unity in order to fight
the ongoing assault on their suddenly re-discovered cause. However, the plan
for the Middle East, set up to benefit the regimes around occupied Palestine -
if they are to bow before it - was never intended for the Palestinians. The
Palestinian Authority was duped by Israel and the United States, ceding their
cause for money, thinking that scraps of Palestine would suffice, but Israel
has never even considered giving Palestinians their 20%.
Now the main target, to destroy resistance to Western
domination in the Middle East, is Iran. Iran, who are not even Arabs, are the
only Middle Eastern country which is keeping Arab resistance alive. If it was
not for Iran, Yemen, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq would currently be or
be on the road to complete servitude of the US Empire.
In order to enact their new Sykes-Picot plan, the US
is now using its Arab regime allies to form a front against the resistance,
even attempting to destroy it from the inside. The ultimate goal here is the
complete occupation of the Middle East via corrupt dictatorships that oppress
and steal from their own people, in order to serve the West.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/23/637074/Palestine-Israel-normalization-Sudan-UAE-Bahrain-Egypt-Jordan-US-Sykes-Picot
--------
Iran: Israel Not in Position to Comment on Nuclear
Non-Proliferation
Oct 23, 2020
"Israel has an operational nuclear weapons
capability with the mass production of nuclear warheads. The estimates have
counted of Israeli nuclear weapons range as many as 400. Israel is also
reported to possess a wide range of different systems," Baloji said
ddressing the UNGA First Committee meeting on Thursday.
"In addition, Israel is possessor of all types of
weapons of mass destruction. Its nuclear capabilities have been acknowledged in
different occasions. In 2006, then Israeli Prime Minister appeared to
acknowledge that Israel had nuclear weapons. When its prime minister in 2018
threatened Iran with nuclear annihilation, it is another case which should be
coped with by the international community for obvious reasons," he added.
The full text of Baloji'se statement is as follows:
Mr. Chair,
My delegation rejects the baseless allegations that
the representative of the Zionist regime of Israel mentioned about Iran.
In fact, Israel is an entity that continues to impose
institutionalized discrimination against Palestinians living under its rule and
the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). Israeli forces are killing
Palestinians even without posing any threat to Israelis. Israel failed to
ensure accountability and redress for victims of such grave violations of
international humanitarian and human rights law and so it is subjecting
Palestinians to collective punishment and deepening the humanitarian crisis
there. It continues to restrict freedom of movement of Palestinians in the OPT
through checkpoints and roadblocks. Israeli authorities unlawfully detain
thousands of Palestinians, holding hundreds in administrative detention.
Torture and other ill-treatment of detainees, including children, were
committed with impunity. Israel continues to displace Palestinians in as a
result of home demolitions. The authorities used a range of measures to target
human rights defenders, journalists and others who criticized Israel’s
continuing occupation of Palestine and other neighboring countries.
On human rights, the statistics are speaking for
themselves and for instance, just in one year, at the United Nations Human
Rights Council, Israel has been the focus of 70% of approximately 50 condemnatory
resolutions by the council, 60% of the ten Special Sessions of the council and
100% of the council's five fact-finding missions or inquiries. It is worth
mentioning that comparisons between apartheid or Nazi regimes and Israel are
increasingly made.
In addition, Israel is possessor of all types of
weapons of mass destruction. Its nuclear capabilities have been acknowledged in
different occasions. In 2006, then Israeli Prime Minister appeared to
acknowledge that Israel had nuclear weapons. When its prime minister in 2018
threatened Iran with nuclear annihilation, it is another case which should be
coped with by the international community for obvious reasons.
Israel has undeclared chemical warfare capabilities,
and an offensive biological warfare program although it continues to deny these
capabilities while rejecting all international calls to put aside the WMD
option and abide by the rules that the responsible states have been recognizing
and implementing.
Israel has an operational nuclear weapons capability
with the mass production of nuclear warheads. The estimates have counted of
Israeli nuclear weapons range as many as 400. Israel is also reported to
possess a wide range of different systems, including neutron bombs, tactical
nuclear weapons, and suitcase nukes. The range of its nuclear weapons delivery
mechanisms is estimated up to 11,500 km.
Thus, Israel has no stand to cry wolf on
non-proliferation or non-compliance and it must stop lying and accusing other
countries, because Israel itself is the number-one violator of international
law in the field of human rights, international humanitarian law, and all
disarmament instruments. Specially on WMD regimes, it must join the NPT, BWC
and CWC and destroy all its WMD arsenals while accepting the related verification
regimes. The international community should compel Israeli regime to put aside
any pretext to join the negotiations on establishing a Middle East free of all
WMDs under the UN and participate in the discussions and the conference
thereof.
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990802000342
--------
Iran: US Unilateralism Jeopardizing Rule of Law in
World
Oct 23, 2020
Takht Ravanchi made the remarks in a statement
addressing the Sixth Committee of the 75th Session of the United Nations
General Assembly On "The Rule of law at the National and International
levels" (Agenda item 86).
The full text of the Iranian envoy's statement is as follows:
Mr. Chairman,
The founders of the United Nations, drawing on lessons
from the past to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war,
established an international legal order on the basis of sovereign equality of
States and prohibition of the threat or use of force in international
relations.
They opted for the path of multilateralism and
peaceful settlement of disputes as a viable solution to end conflicts. Since
the inception of the UN, multilateralism in and of itself has been a major
achievement of the UN system. However, this important achievement is now under
severe attack by the unilateral approaches of the United States.
U.S.’ unilateralism has been manifested in the form of
withdrawal from international treaties and international organizations; waging
trade wars against countries; committing economic and medical terrorism in the
form of imposing inhumane universal coercive measures to gain political
objectives; threatening the International Criminal Court and its prosecutor;
weaponizing its currency to abuse the international financial system;
penalizing nations across the entire world for abiding by the Security Council
resolutions; confiscating the assets of national banks; and violating its
commitments toward the UN with the imposition of inhumane restrictions on the
representatives of some Member States accredited to the UN. These are all
examples of the vicious approach taken toward the international community which
has seriously endangered rule of law at the international level.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, in an effort to defend
its legitimate rights against this lawlessness, has opened two cases before the
International Court of Justice. The Court’s unanimous provisional order
requesting the U.S. to remove the obstacles created as a result of its actions
and illegal decisions made following its withdrawal from the JCPOA, including
the impediments imposed on the path of Iran’s trade in certain domains, was
another clear testament to the illegality of the United States’ sanctions. However,
the US Government, instead of complying with the binding decision of the main
judicial organ of the UN, has intensified its coercive measures against my
Country and its people.
Mr. Chairman,
Corruption represents a grave danger to all and
threatens the prosperity of the peoples and the developments of their societies
while undermining the rule of law. Corruption can only be defeated by sustained
political will through a holistic and universal approach in line with the
United Nations Convention against Corruption. To this end, we are committed to
ensuring full, effective and balanced implementation of the Convention, in
particular its provisions on asset recovery as a fundamental principle of the
Convention, which have been alarmingly and unexpectedly underutilized.
By upholding the rule of law and in line with its
commitment to the Convention, the Islamic Republic of Iran has made significant
efforts both at the national and international levels to prevent and combat
corruption. In this process, the Islamic Republic of Iran, with the aim of
improving efficiency in its laws and provisions to counter corruption, has
amended the “Countering Money-laundering Act of 2008” and has finalized the
draft bill on the conflict of interest.
Despite all these efforts, the Islamic Republic of
Iran still faces certain challenges in preventing and combating corruption.
Unilateral Coercive Measures have impaired the allocation of required resources
in our fight against corruption.
The non-compliance of certain states in the effective
cooperation of recovery of assets acquired illegally indicate the double
standards as well as dubious and dishonest approaches in eradicating corruption
which would only embolden corrupted criminals in continuing their malicious
activities hence, undermining the rule of law at the national and international
levels.
Despite these challenges, we would like to reiterate
once again our commitment and decisive will to fight corruption effectively and
responsibly. We are determined to confine these destructive impacts by
initiating and developing efficient strategies in curbing and combating this
menace as asserted by the Convention.
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990802000176
--------
Turkey’s Erdogan says Libya ceasefire doesn’t seem
‘too achievable’
23 October 2020
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday
questioned the viability of a ceasefire signed between Libya’s two rival
factions, one of whom is supported by Ankara.
“Today’s ceasefire agreement was actually not made at
the highest level, it was at a lower level. Time will tell whether it will
last,” Erdogan, who backs the Government of National Accord (GNA), told
reporters in Istanbul.
For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
“So it seems to me that it lacks credibility,” Erdogan
said, but added he hoped the ceasefire would work.
Stephanie Williams, the United Nations Libya envoy,
announced earlier on Friday that the two Libyan delegations “signed a complete,
countrywide and permanent ceasefire agreement with immediate effect.”
The announcement came after five days of talks at the
UN.
Turkey has provided military support to the GNA
against military Khalifa Haftar, who is supported by Egypt, the United Arab
Emirates and Russia.
Ankara last year signed security and maritime deals
with the GNA after which it sent drones that helped turn the tide in the
increasingly complex war.
Libya has been mired in chaos since the overthrow and
killing of dictator Moammar Qadhafi in 2011 in a NATO-backed uprising.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/10/23/Turkey-s-Erdogan-says-Libya-ceasefire-doesn-t-seem-too-achievable-
--------
Israel warplanes strike Hamas targets in Gaza Strip
following rocket fire
23 October 2020
Israeli warplanes struck suspected Hamas military
targets in the Gaza Strip before dawn on Friday following rocket fire from the
blockaded Palestinian territory.
Fighter jets and other aircraft struck a “weapons
manufacturing site and underground infrastructures” operated by Islamist group
Hamas, which has controlled the territory since 2007, the Israeli army said.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app
Hamas reported no casualties from the Israeli strikes
on the Nuseirat refugee camp and the southern city of Khan Yunis.
Two rockets had been launched at Israel late Thursday,
without causing any casualties or damage. One was intercepted by Israeli air
defenses, while the other hit open ground, the army said.
The last reported rocket attack from Gaza was on
Tuesday night. It came after the army announced it had found a new tunnel that
crosses “dozens of meters (yards) into Israel” from Gaza.
The next day the army said the tunnel belonged to
Hamas.
Authorities have discovered some 20 tunnels
originating in Gaza since 2014, army spokesman Jonathan Conricus said this
week.
Israel has fought three wars with Hamas since the
Islamists ousted loyalists of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas from the
territory in 2007 and there have been numerous smaller flare-ups.
An informal truce brokered by Egypt and the United
Nations, has been in force since late 2018. It has been broken several times
but has been restored on each occasion.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/10/23/Israel-warplanes-strike-Hamas-targets-in-Gaza-Strip-following-rocket-fire-
--------
Africa
Sudan to designate Lebanon’s Hezbollah as terrorist
organization under Israel deal
Joseph Haboush and Nadia Bilbassy-Charters
23 October 2020
Sudan has agreed to designate Lebanese Hezbollah as a
terrorist organization as part of a recent deal to normalize ties with Israel,
a senior US official said Friday.
“After decades of living under a brutal dictatorship,
the people of Sudan are finally taking charge,” a joint statement between the
United States, Sudan and Israel said.
For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
But there was no mention of Hezbollah's designation,
which the senior US official confirmed to Al Arabiya English that Sudan agreed
to.
It remains unclear if this was a demand by other Arab
states or only Israel and the US.
Friday marked 37 years since one of the deadliest
attacks against US troops on foreign soil. On Oct. 23, 1983, a suicide bombing
at the US Marine Barracks in Beirut killed 241 American service members.
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) October 23, 2020
US President Donald Trump Friday announced that Sudan
would normalize relations with Israel, in a landmark step after two Gulf Arab
nations moved to recognize Israel.
Moments after Trump formally moved to remove Sudan
from a US list of state sponsors of terrorism, reporters were escorted to the
Oval Office where he was on the phone with leaders of Israel and Sudan.
The deal with Sudan will include aid and investment
from Israel, particularly in technology and agriculture, along with further
debt relief. It comes as Sudan and its transitional government teeter on the
edge. Thousands have protested in the country’s capital Khartoum and other
regions in recent days over dire economic conditions.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/10/23/Sudan-to-designate-Lebanon-s-Hezbollah-terrorist-organization-as-part-of-Israel-deal
--------
Libya rival sides agree to sign permanent ceasefire
deal: UN envoy
23 October 2020
Libya’s rival sides have eventually agreed to sign a
permanent ceasefire agreement in all areas, to bring an end to months of deadly
fighting in the North African nation.
The two sides poised to sign an agreement to open air
and land routes that connect all regions and cities in the country, said a
United Nations spokeswoman on Friday.
She said the two sides have reached the “historic
achievement” with a permanent ceasefire deal.
A signing ceremony was scheduled for Friday morning at
the UN European headquarters in the Swiss city of Geneva.
UN acting envoy to Libya, Stephanie Williams, will
hold a press conference after the signing.
Williams has expressed concern that there are still
“worrying developments,” such as Libya’s deteriorating socio-economic
conditions.
“And, of course, the COVID pandemic is increasing
exponentially in the country,” said added.
The country, which sits atop the largest oil reserves
in Africa, descended into chaos last year after the so-called Libyan National
Army (LNA) under rebel commander Khalifa Haftar moved toward Tripoli to seize
the city, which was repelled by Libyan government forces.
The conflict has escalated into a regional proxy war
fueled by foreign powers pouring weapons and mercenaries into the country.
Haftar forces were fighting to unseat the government
with support from the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Jordan.
But government forces have pushed them as far back as
Sirte, on the Mediterranean coastline, with crucial help from Turkey.
In August, the rival administrations announced
separately that they would cease all hostilities and hold nationwide elections,
drawing praise from world powers.
After mediation led by Williams this week, the 5+5
Libyan Joint Military Commission reached what the UN called an “important
turning point towards peace and stability in Libya.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Williams said that she was
“quite optimistic” that ongoing talks between the warring sides would lead to a
lasting ceasefire.
“From what I've seen in the room in these direct
talks, there is an air of seriousness and commitment,” she said.
She also urged the two parties “to solve all
outstanding issues and forge a lasting cease-fire agreement.”
The parties agreed to initiate joint security
arrangements, with a particular focus on the road for the land routes from
Shuwerif to Sebha to Murzuq, from Abu Grein to Jufra, and for the coastal road
from Misrata to Sirte and onwards to Ajdabiya.
Williams also stressed that what made these talks
important is that “this will be a Libyan-owned solution.”
Libya initially plunged into chaos in 2011, when a
popular uprising and a NATO intervention led to the ouster of long-time
dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Ankara has repeatedly warned foreign players against
“dangerous military adventure” in the oil-rich country, saying it would
maintain support for the Libyan government.
Turkey made the warning after Egyptian President
Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi said earlier this year that his country would take
military action in Libya in direct support of the rebels.
An escalation in Libya could have risked igniting a
direct conflict among the foreign powers that have poured in weapons and
fighters in violation of an arms embargo.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/23/637040/Libya-chaos-UN-ceasefire
--------
Angry Sudanese rally to condemn normalization with
Israel
24 October 2020
Angry Sudanese protesters have taken to the streets to
condemn the current junta's decision to follow the UAE and Bahrain in forging
diplomatic relations with Israel.
They rallied in the capital Khartoum Friday evening,
calling on Sudan’s Sovereign Council chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan to
reject the normalization deal.
“No to negotiations, peace ... and reconciliation with
the [Israeli] regime,” they chanted. “We will neither surrender, nor will we
relinquish ... We are standing with Palestine,” they cried as they set the
Israeli flag on fire.
Numerous Sudanese political parties also lined up to declare
their outright rejection of the normalization agreement between their country
and Israel, stressing they are going to form a front to oppose the move.
Sudanese Ba'ath Party, the Sudanese Communist Party,
National Consensus Forces (NCF) – a coalition of political parties - the
National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC)
alliance, the Popular Congress Party as well as Sudan Change Now political
movement stated that they are fiercely against any relationship between Khartoum
and Tel Aviv.
“A few days ago, we embarked on intense political
contacts with distinguished artists as well as cultural and literary figures to
form a front against normalization,” spokesman for the Sudanese Baath Party
Muhammad Wadaa said.
"There are a number of parties within the FFC
that have warned to withdraw support for the government upon normalization, and
other parties have announced similar positions."
Wadaa highlighted that there are consultations and
meetings on how to stand against the normalization.
“Normalization with Israel is an unacceptable step…
The government is not authorized to take such a measure with a usurping and
racist regime, which practices religious discrimination,” he said.
Wadaa lashed out at the Sudanese government over making
normalization with Israel a condition for resolving economic woes.
“The government must not have invoked to sell the
country and Sudan's history on the pretext of economic difficulties,” he said.
“The government must resign and cede power to the people
if it is unable to overcome difficulties by itself.”
US President Donald Trump announced on Friday at the
White House that Sudan and Israel had agreed to normalize relations.
Trump sealed the agreement in a phone call with
Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sudanese prime minister Abdalla
Hamdok and Burhan, senior US officials said.
Sudan’s acting foreign minister Omar Gamareldin,
however, said on Friday the accord will depend on approval from its yet-to-be
formed legislative council. It is unclear when the assembly will be formed
under a power-sharing deal between the country’s military officers and
civilians.
Palestinians blast normalization agreement
Furthermore, Palestinians strongly condemned Sudan’s
agreement to normalize relations with the Israeli regime.
The Islamic resistance movement Hamas said in a
statement that the move has shocked Palestinians, Arab and Muslim nations, as
well as freedom-loving people of the world.
“Sudan, indeed, loses its position as a leading Arab
and Muslim country by agreeing to sign such a deal," the statement said.
“We call on the Sudanese people to express their
rejection of this dishonorable agreement that won’t bring about stability and
prosperity, but rather chaos, deterioration, and disgrace,” it added.
Hamas said the agreement "will add to the Israeli
regime’s hegemony in the region and will not serve the interests of Arab and
Muslim nations. It will also lead to disputes and upheavals, especially inside
Sudan.”
“Hamas calls on Arab nations to fight off all forms of
normalization, and denounce the establishment of any diplomatic relations with
the Israeli occupation regime,” the statement said.
Separately, Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the
Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), described
the normalization of relations between Sudan and Israel as a “new stab in the
back” of Palestinians.
“Sudan’s joining others who normalized ties with the
Israeli occupation regime represents a new stab in the back of the Palestinian
people and a betrayal of the just Palestinian cause,” Abu Youssef said in the
occupied West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday.
He highlighted that Sudan's decision to normalize ties
with the Tel Aviv regime “will not shake the Palestinians’ faith in their cause
and in continuing their struggle.”
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas also rejected the
deal, saying the Palestinian Authority will take necessary measures to protect
the legitimate interests and rights of Palestinian people.
His office said in a statement on Friday that the deal
was in violation of the Arab League resolutions, the Arab Peace Initiative and
the UN Security Council Resolution 1515.
“No one has the right to speak on behalf of the
Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause. The path to a comprehensive and
just peace must be based on international law and resolutions,” it said.
It underscored that a just peace should "lead to
an end of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and establishment of an
independent Palestinian state with East al-Quds as its capital on the borders
of June 4, 1967.”
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/24/637091/Dozens-rally-against-Sudan-agreement-to-normalize-relations-with-Israel-in-US-brokered-deal
--------
India
Court Accepts Waqf Board’s Petition in Kashi
Vishwanath-Gyanvapi Mosque Case, Hearing on November 12
OCTOBER 23, 2020
The district court has accepted the revisional
admission of the Sunni Central Waqf Board in the Kashi Vishwanath Temple and
the Gyanvapi Mosque case on Thursday. The case will be heard on November 12
over jurisdiction of the case.
The Kashi Vishwanath temple has demanded an
archaeological survey to which the Anjuman Intezamia Committee had objected.
However, the Sunni Waqf Board then entered the case and filed a petition.
As per the petition, the Waqf Board said that the case
should be heard in Lucknow Waqf Tribunal but on February 25 the petition was
quashed. Following this, the board applied for a revisionary admission and the
matter was again heard on August 20.
On Thursday after hearing the arguments of the three
parties- Lord Vishweshwar Temple, Anjuman Intezamia Committee Masjid, and Sunni
Waqf Board, the court accepted the Waqf Board's revisionary admission and now
the jurisdiction matter will be heard on November 12.
The district judge said in the hearing that the
subordinate court has determined that it has the right to hear the case pending
since 1991. In this case, there is no need to refer to the Waqf Board, Lucknow.
The sessions court has the right to hear against this order. The views
presented by the opposition side do not apply. In such a situation, this
surveillance is accepted as civil monitoring. Filing this monitoring petition,
the date of November 12 is fixed for disposal and advance order.
https://www.news18.com/news/india/court-accepts-waqf-boards-petition-in-kashi-vishwanath-gyanvapi-mosque-case-hearing-on-november-12-2997869.html
--------
Kashmir off the table for future talks, India signals
to Pakistan
Oct 24, 2020
NEW DELHI: This week India came down hard on Pakistan
at the Commonwealth foreign ministers’ meeting, describing it as a “globally
acknowledged promoter of state-sponsored terrorism” masquerading as a victim and
dismissed Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s comments on Kashmir
as a subject that was India’s “internal matter”.
The dismissive and undiplomatic brusque response has
now become the template for Indian response to Pakistan’s repeated attempts to
raise Kashmir, a position that has steadily solidified since the reorganisation
of J&K in August last year.
While the commentary is not new, the clear signal to
Islamabad is that it has no locus standi on Kashmir and is, in fact, in illegal
occupation of PoK. In sharp words, Vikas Swarup, secretary in MEA, slammed
Qureshi for raising the Kashmir issue, sarcastically observing that his
reference to a south Asian nation that committed atrocities against its
religious minorities seemed to best describe Pakistan — a country “that brought
genocide to South Asia 49 years back when it killed its own people (in
erstwhile east Pakistan)”.
Later, foreign minister S Jaishankar used the Asia
Society platform to state, “terrorism from Pakistan remains publicly acknowledged
by their government as a policy that they are justifying. So it makes it very
hard to conduct normal relations with them”.
His iteration that Kashmir’s reorganisation is an
“internal matter” swiftly dissipated any prospect of a return to the old
engagement template with Pakistan, a message that New Delhi is emphatically
conveying to the power centres in the neighbouring nation.
In fact, Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s NSA Moeed Yusuf
laying out the parameters of future talks with India, showed how far apart the
two countries were with his suggestion that India wanted to talk being
dismissed out of hand. So far as India is concerned, the “status” of Kashmir,
an article of faith for Pakistan, in talks with India, is now a non-issue or at
least no longer as Islamabad has considered it.
The “composite” dialogue of eight subjects, or even
the rebadged “comprehensive” dialogue kick-started by late foreign minister
Sushma Swaraj, is no longer applicable in the current context, particularly
after the Modi government created the UTs of J&K and Ladakh. According to
government sources, Pakistan will no longer have any locus standi to discuss
this.
While New Delhi has always maintained J&K to be
“an integral part” of India, there was an implicit accommodation of the Pakistani
position at any engagement. That has now gone. Since August 5, 2019, India has
certainly come under international pressure, but this has been on the issue of
human rights in Kashmir, detention of political leaders, press freedom, 4G
internet access. There has been no push-back on Article 370 — except for
Pakistan and China.
“After PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti was released last
week, we’re getting less questions from the international community,” a source
said. Jaishankar said in his remarks this week that India’s external boundaries
have not changed.
“So as far as our neighbours are concerned, our point
to them is that this is something which is internal to us. Every country after
all reserves the right to change its administrative jurisdictions. A country
like China has also changed the borders of its provinces and I’m sure a lot of
other countries do that. Neighbours get impacted only if your external
boundaries change. That has not happened in this case,” he said.
Pakistan is yet to comprehend the changed metrics of
engagement, as was clear during Yusuf’s interview to an Indian media channel.
India is likely to push at least diplomatically for return of Kashmiri
territory illegally held by Pakistan (and a part of it ceded to China).
On the UN Security Council resolutions, India
considers them to be infructuous now, because there is no longer any
possibility of a plebiscite, after the constitutional action of August 5, 2019.
For the past year, the foreign office has taken a harder and more belligerent stand
with Pakistan. India has not neglected to emphasise the internal nature of the
actions on Kashmir.
This has now become accepted Indian positions, and
this will form the basis of any future engagement with Pakistan, said people
familiar with developments.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/kashmir-off-the-table-for-future-talks-india-signals-to-pakistan/articleshow/78837771.cms
--------
Scare on Delhi-Goa flight over ‘terrorists’ on board
Anvit Srivastava
Oct 24, 2020
Panic broke out on board a Delhi-Goa flight when a
passenger got up from his seat and screamed that there terrorists were on board
the plane. The man, who was later identified as a resident of Delhi’s Jamia
Nagar, also claimed to be from the Special Cell, Delhi Police’s anti-terror unit.
The man was detained soon as the flight made a
priority landing at Goa airport on Thursday. Senior police officers said the
man was diagnosed to be mentally unstable and sent to hospital for treatment.
HT is not naming the passenger due to his mental health issues.
The incident took place at 3.15pm on Air India flight
AI-883. According to the officers of the Central Industrial Security Force
(CISF), that secures the airports, when the flight was about to land in Goa
airport, the man got up and shouted: “There are terrorists in this flight”.
As other passengers panicked, flight crew tried to
intervene. When they asked the man to sit down calmly, he told them he was from
the Special Cell of Delhi Police. An official aware of the incident said the
man did not turn violent on the plane and was calmed down by the crew.
The matter was reported to the chief pilot, who
alerted Goa Air Traffic Control (ATC) and requested priority landing, citing an
emergency. The flight was given a priority landing slot by the ATC, which
informed the Airport Operation Control Centre (AOCC) that in turn alerted the
CISF and Goa police.
“Soon, as the flight landed safely at Goa airport, the
CISF commandos detained the man at the aero-bridge itself. He was escorted to
the Dabolim police station by the CISF staff and the members of Air India’s
security staff,” said a senior CISF officer, who did not wish to be named.
Air India declined to comment on the matter.
Pankaj Kumar Singh, superintendent of police, (south
Goa), said the man did not seem to be mentally fit.
“He was travelling alone. When we tried to question
him on his act, he did not seem to be fine. We got him medically examined and
he was sent to the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour (IPHB) in
Bambolim, Goa on doctor’s advice. No case has been registered against him so
far,” Singh said.
During the initial investigation, the police found
that the man had been under treatment for schizophrenia for the past three
years.
“We contacted his family members, who told us that he
had been staying alone for past few months. They said he had studied business
administration after which he slipped into depression and is being treated for
schizophrenia. They also said that he had stopped taking his medicines
recently..,” said a south Goa police officer who did not want to be named.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/scare-on-delhi-goa-flight-over-terrorists-on-board/story-fDnQLNSJxtO8Budqer3SYL.html
--------
In Biden’s outreach to Indian Americans, a clear
reference to Chinese aggression and Pak
Yashwant Raj
Oct 23, 2020
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has said
that while US-India ties were “photo-ops” for President Donald Trump, for him
they were about “getting things done”, and reiterated his promise to work with India
to combat terrorism and prevent China from threatening its neighbours.
To illustrate his contrast with the US president,
Biden recalled the role he played in the passage of the “historic” India-US
civil nuclear deal as chairman of the US Senate foreign relations committee in
2008.
“At the time, I said if the United States and India
became closer friends, then the world will be a safer place,” Biden wrote in an
Op-Ed in India West, a news publication focused on the Indian diaspora.
President Barack Obama’s 2009-2016 tenure saw “some of
the best years” between the two countries, Biden wrote, adding that he and his
Indian-descent running mate Kamala Harris will “build on that great progress
and do even more.”
“We can and should be natural allies,” wrote Biden,
who currently has the upper hand in the election according to opinion polls,
using a phrase first used by late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee during a
trip to the US in 1998.
Leaders from both countries have since tried their own
version to define the relationship in their own vision.
Biden reiterated his promise—first laid out in an
expansive platform he unveiled on August 15 at a virtual event to mark India’s
Independence Day—to work with India on its key foreign policy concerns.
“If elected President, I will continue what I have
long called for: The US and India will stand together against terrorism in all
its forms and work together to promote a region of peace and stability where
neither China nor any other country threatens its neighbours.” The resolve to
combat terrorism was a reference to cross-border terrorism emanating from
Pakistan.
Both Biden and Trump have wooed Indian Americans
voters—estimated to number 1.9 million—for their potential to make a
difference, howsoever small, in battleground states that will determine the
outcome. “The Indian American electorate of nearly 2 million voters is a
powerful force that can make all the difference from North Carolina and
Virginia to Pennsylvania and Michigan to Georgia and Texas and across the
country,” he wrote, leaving no doubt the Op-Ed was an appeal to Indian American
voters.
He added: “And as we value the Indian-American
diaspora, we’ll continue to value the US-India relationship. For Donald Trump,
it’s photo-ops. For me, it’s getting things done.”
It could not be immediately ascertained if the former
vice-president was referring to a video released by the Trump campaign of clips
of the president with Prime Minister Narendra Modi from their joint appearances
at the ‘Howdy Modi’ and ‘Namaste Trump’ events in Houston and Ahmedabad to woo
Indian American voters.
Biden promised them better ties with their country of
origin and better lives for them in the US, addressing their main concerns, as
with other Americans—promise to contain the Covid-19 epidemic, expand
healthcare, not raise taxes for those under a certain income, encourage legal
immigration, and make colleges tuition-free for some certain income categories.
Bide also noted in the Op-Ed the importance of
respecting diversity among other shared values. “We will meet every challenge
together as we strengthen both democracies—fair and free elections, equality
under the law, freedom of expression and religion, and the boundless strength
both nations’ draw from our diversity,” he wrote, adding, “These core
principles have endured throughout each nations’ histories and will continue to
be the source of our strength in the future.”
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/for-trump-india-us-ties-are-about-photo-ops-biden/story-lBYVfmJnmwuQIzLu1wQprJ.html
--------
Pakistan
No atmosphere for talks with India, says Pak foreign
minister
Imtiaz Ahmad
Oct 23, 2020
Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told
reporters on Friday that he does not see an atmosphere for talks with India at
this stage, citing what he called a ‘human lockdown’ in Kashmir.
“In my honest opinion, I do not see an atmosphere for
talks,” he said at the foreign office in Islamabad.
Qureshi rejected suggestions that messages for talks
have been sent from across the border.
“There are some quarters who have been saying that
talks should take place, but I do not think this the time, or the atmosphere is
right for this, as the situation in Indian held Kashmir is very bad.”
“There are restrictions on movement of people and there
are human rights abuses taking place. There is a communication blackout. How
can we have talks in such an atmosphere?”
He said that India needs to rethink its decision of
removing the special status for Jammu and Kashmir.
“Only then can we have talks,” he said adding that the
Indian action has been rejected both by Pakistan and the people of Kashmir.
“India’s stance on Kashmir has suffered because of its actions.”
He told reporters that when Prime Minister Imran Khan
assumed office, he had proposed talks but these were rejected by India.
“Now given the situation in Kashmir, we cannot give
talks priority.” India, he said, has to review its one-sided decisions.
He also said India’s plans to “push Pakistan into the
blacklist” of Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will fail because of the steps
the country had taken to meet the requirements of the global watchdog on money
laundering and terrorist financing.
His comments came as a plenery meeting of FATF on
Friday voted to keep Pakistan in its ‘grey list’ of countries whose controls
over terrorism financing are deemed inadequate.
“I can say this with confidence, India will fail in
its designs to push Pakistan into the blacklist,” Qureshi said, adding that the
world had “acknowledged” that the government and parliament had taken “concrete
steps” regarding the FATF’s action plan.
Of the 27 points on which the FATF had asked Pakistan
to take action, “I can say with conviction we have implemented 21,” the
minister said. He added that progress had also been made on the remaining six
points.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/no-atmosphere-for-talks-with-india-says-pak-foreign-minister/story-hXiQtAkt8GUmjyiMrvyjWM.html
--------
PM terms meetings with opposition leaders ‘mistake’
Hassan Sheerazi
24 Oct 2020
KARACHI: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday said
meeting leaders of protesting opposition parties was ‘a big mistake’ while
questioning what has been gained from those meetings, as the latter are using
such language against the army that even the enemies do not use.
About the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz supremo, Mr
Khan declared that he would get him deported from the UK, even if he would have
to talk to Prime Minister Boris Johnson. He said his government was in constant
contact with the authorities in the UK so that Nawaz Sharif could be brought
back at the earliest.
The prime minister expressed these views during his
two-hour-long interview on ARY News channel. He said whether he remained in
power or not, he would make sure that leaders of the protesting opposition
parties never came back to power.
About recent meetings of the army chief with the
PML-Nawaz leaders, Mr Khan said: “This was also our big mistake. Although
General Bajwa used to tell me they were meeting. So and so was coming to meet.
They will have conversation. I think this was a big mistake. They should not
have been met. We should not have met them. What has been gained by meeting
[them]?”
He said: “Today the abuses they are hurling, the
language they are using against the army, even the enemies do not use such
language. So what has been gained?”
“Whosoever was meeting, what did they want [but] NRO.
Amnesty for their theft. Either you decide that you will pardon their loot. For
me, even if my grave is dug up, till the time I am alive, I will not pardon
them. Gen Musharraf did the worst to Pakistan when he gave them NRO under
pressure.”
“Whether I am in power or not, these thieves would
never get back in power. I will take people to streets if they get back into
power,” Mr Khan explained. He remarked either the protesting opposition leaders
or Pakistan would survive.
Asked about his opinion about the recently reported
abduction of Sindh Inspector General of Police in Karachi, Prime Minister Imran
Khan said: “Who was kidnapped?” He then recalled that sometimes PTI leaders got
scared of opposition rallies but he told them they should not worry, as it was
democratic right of the opposition to stage rallies. Referring to the IG House
incident, the PM said: “I believe it is a comedy. When I think about that, I
laugh. What is happening? It is unfortunate that all the enemies of Pakistan,
including India and Israel, are with them.”
He said: “Nawaz Sharif is greedy. Money is their god. Narendra
Modi had stated that Gen Raheel Sharif was a terrorist while praising Sharif.
Burkha Dutt said Nawaz as prime minister had met Modi in Khatmandu while
keeping the army in dark. India wants that Pakistan’s disintegration into three
states. Israel is only scared of Pakistan Army. Israel and India want
disintegration of Pakistan. Nawaz Sharif says all other army officers are fine
except Gen Bajwa. Similarly, they say, one or two judges are honest but not
other judges. They are trying to create rifts within institutions.”
Asked about his team’s performance to build his
narrative, Mr Khan said his government could not spend as much money on the
media as they had done. Journalists and some media houses used to get ads from
the governments in the past. “Kidnapping [of Sindh police chief] was a
non-issue, yet media houses were creating hype… I don’t fear free media. Nawaz
Sharif mistreated Najam Sethi. Fake news and propaganda damages the government.
Fake news is a problem that I face,” he said.
Food prices
About the recent increase in food prices, the prime
minister said prices of wheat flour had increased as ill-timed rains had
damaged crops. He said that the institution that was supposed to forecast the
produce had not been functioning properly. “Now we have asked Suparco to give
satellite image so that information technology is used to assess the wheat
crops,” he said.
He said he wrote letters to the food departments to
assess wheat situation, but Sindh did not gave a clear picture. Later, when
Punjab released wheat, Sindh kept it stocks, with the result that Punjab wheat
moved to Sindh, he said. This was the reason, he said, he wanted “food security
to be centralised”.
The prime minister said prices of ghee and pulses
increased due to international prices, because Pakistan imported 60pc pulses
and also edible oil. However, he promised that food prices would come down in a
week or so.
About sugar prices, Mr Khan said sugar cartel was
behind shortage of sugar in the country. It was exported initially due to miscalculation
that caused price hike. But the commodity has been imported, and the price
would come down soon.
“When people were in pain, they lose patience. If you
ask people what is this government performance, they will share their agony,”
he said, reminding the people that Riasat-i-Madina was not built in a day. The
Muslims faced hardships and wars. There were threats from within and outside,
he said. “A country can’t prosper overnight. When you fix it, it will take
time.”
About the civil bureaucracy, the Prime Minister said
there was a status quo for the past 30 years. “The process for improvement will
take time. I appeal to the nation to stand by Imran Khan.” He said PIA
operations had become profitable, fiscal deficit balanced and current account
deficit being turned positive.
The contracts the past governments had signed had been
a burden on his government, he said. The cost of power generation was too high,
while even in gas contract with Qatar, they made money. “We are trapped because
of these past contracts,” he reasoned.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1586724/pm-terms-meetings-with-opposition-leaders-mistake
--------
Geo reporter Ali Imran 'goes missing' in Karachi
Imtiaz Ali
24 Oct 2020
A reporter working for Geo News has gone missing in
Karachi. According to a report published on their website, Ali Imran Syed went
missing on Friday.
Imran left his home between 7pm and 8pm after telling
his family he would be back home in half an hour. He has not returned home
since, the report said. It also quoted his wife as saying that his car was
parked outside the house and he had left his mobile phone at home.
The Geo News administration stated that the Karachi
police chief and DIG East have been informed about Imran's disappearance, the
publication said, adding that the family had also submitted a report to Sachal
police station.
Speaking to Dawn.com, Sachal police SHO Haroon Korai
confirmed that the family had submitted an application. "However, an FIR
has not been registered so far," he said.
Meanwhile, Sindh government spokesperson Murtaza Wahab
said Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah has taken notice of the incident and spoken
to the IG. "The matter is being investigated," he said.
The reporter's disappearance has also garnered
attention on social media. The hashtag 'BringBackAliImran' was among the top
trends on Twitter on Saturday.
Amnesty International stated that Imran was
"feared to have been subjected to an enforced disappearance for his
reporting". "The authorities must establish his whereabouts
immediately," the human rights group said.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan also called
for Imran's "immediate release".
PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz also condemned the
reporter's disappearance.
"I have heard that he has been picked up for
allegedly sharing CCTV footage of [retired Captain Safdar's arrest]. This is
unfortunate," she said while speaking to reporters in Lahore.
Addressing the government, she said: "You have
earned a lot of flak for breaking down my door, the manner in which you
arrested my husband and the way you undermined the Sindh police force.
"Don't earn yourself more criticism by kidnapping
people and stopping them from raising their voice for the truth. This is very
wrong [and] needs to stop," she said.
Meanwhile, Information Minister Shibli Faraz said he
"sincerely hoped and prayed" Imran would reunite with his family and
friends soon.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1586769/geo-reporter-ali-imran-goes-missing-in-karachi
--------
Opposition walks out of NA, says proceedings not being
run properly
24 Oct 2020
ISLAMABAD: Opposition lawmakers on Friday accused the
chair of not running the National Assembly session in an appropriate manner and
staged a walkout from the house in protest.
When the session began, PPP member Naveed Qamar, while
taking the floor, said the opposition could not become part of the house
because it was being run in an inappropriate manner.
The house was not properly representing the people of
the country, he said. “Therefore, we are staging the walkout,” the PPP leader
said after which the opposition lawmakers left the house.
The opposition’s walkout and poor presence of PTI and
allied parties’ lawmakers in the house created the quorum problem forcing NA
Speaker Asad Qaisar to adjourn proceedings of the house till Monday.
It was the third consecutive session of the lower
house which had to be adjourned because of lack of quorum and the opposition’s
walkout.
The house could not do any legislative business on
Tuesday also after the opposition staged a noisy protest for nearly two hours
following refusal of Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri to allow opposition members to
speak on the current political situation in the country.
The opposition members kept on hurling papers at the
speaker’s dais, raised slogans against the government and surrounded Mr Suri
almost throughout the proceedings.
Following the opposition’s walkout on Friday, Adviser
to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan said the manner in
which the opposition was protesting and surrounding the speaker’s dais was
against parliamentary norms.
He said the opposition did not participate in all the
meetings called by the speaker and this attitude of the opposition was also
unconstitutional.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1586715/opposition-walks-out-of-na-says-proceedings-not-being-run-properly
--------
South Asia
Taliban Attack Claims 22 ANA Members, Take Dozen
Hostage in Nimroz
By Mohammad Arif Sheva
23 Oct 2020
NIMROZ, Afghanistan – At least 20 Afghan National Army
(ANA) members were killed in a Taliban attack on their outpost in Khashrod
district of Nimroz province Thursday evening, local authorities said.
Jalil Ahamad Watandost, Khashrod District Governor,
said further six army members were taken hostage by the Taliban.
While local officials did not provide further details
on the attack, photos circulating on social media show the Taliban taking a
number of Afghan armies hostage.
The Ministry of Defense or Interior Affairs did not
immediately confirmed the incident.
This comes amidst a sharp increase in violence across
the country despite ongoing peace negotiations between the Afghan and Taliban
representatives in Doha.
https://www.khaama.com/taliban-attack-claims-22-ana-members-take-dozen-hostage-in-nimroz-3454353/
--------
Southeast Asia
China not committed to curbing terrorism but using Pak
as tool against India: Report
Posted by Deepali Sharma
Oct 23, 2020
Pakistan appears to be counting on China to
diplomatically shield Islamabad from accountability for its terror activities
while Beijing’s desire is to use terrorism as a tool to counter India,
according to Public Policy Researcher Michael Rubin.
In an opinion piece for The Washington Examiner, Rubin
said, “Beijing appears less committed to counterterrorism and more to a desire
to use Pakistani terrorism as a tool to harass India with whom it is locked in
a border clash in Ladakh.”
“The reality of both great power competition and
China’s efforts to undermine and replace the post-World War II liberal order is
that they occur on a number of fronts. Increasingly, it appears the FATF is one
of them. Rather than make substantial reforms, Pakistani officials appear to be
counting on the fact that China will go to bat for them diplomatically and
shield Pakistan from accountability,” he added.
This statement comes ahead of the conclusion of the
plenary meeting of FATF, which is expected to take a decision on Pakistan’s
compliance of the action plan and whether it will remain in Grey List or Black
List.
The global money-laundering and terror-financing
watchdog, is holding its plenary session from October 21 will decide the fate
of Pakistan.
Talking about the meeting (last month) between Chinese
Envoy Yao Jing with Pakistan’s special adviser for finance, Abdul Hafeez
Sheikh, Rubin said: “both the representatives reportedly talked far less about
FATF commitments and more about the USD 60 billion China Pakistan Economic
Corridor (CPEC), whose success depends on Pakistan’s economic solvency and its
escape from accountability to the FATF.”
He further said China’s vote on Pakistan’s FATF status
on Friday will show how Beijing subordinates the “liberal order” for its
“narrow interests.”
“...China’s action and the Friday vote on the question
of Pakistan’s FATF status will be as much about countering terror finance as
they are about whether China will use its membership in yet another
international body to corrupt it beyond recognition, the goal being to
subordinate the liberal order to Beijing’s narrow interests,” he said.
Early this month, the FATF’s Asia Pacific Group (APG)
on Money Laundering has kept Pakistan on “Enhanced Follow-up List” for its slow
progress on the technical recommendations of the FATF to fight terror
financing. Pakistan’s progress has remained unchanged -- non-compliant on four
counts.
The three-day plenary meeting will conclude on Friday.
The country is in FATF’s grey-list since 2018.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/china-not-committed-to-curbing-terrorism-but-using-pak-as-tool-against-india-report/story-JtD8ZlosyaR9krSTodIPUL.html
--------
Muslim groups urge governor to overturn loudspeaker
ban
Predeep Nambiar
October 23, 2020
GEORGE TOWN: A group of Muslim NGOs has urged Penang
Governor Abdul Rahman Abbas to intervene in a decision by Islamic authorities
to limit the use of outdoor speakers at mosques to calls of prayer alone.
The group, calling themselves “Penang Muslim NGOs”,
said a circular by the state Islamic Affairs Department on Oct 15 had “usurped
the rights of Muslims” in the state.
The group said it had objected to a similar move by
the department in 2015 by writing to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, after which the
order was restudied.
The Penang mufti had called the NGOs move “politically
motivated”.
The group’s representative, Azmi Jaafar, told
reporters outside the governor’s residence: “Now after five years, they are
trying to reintroduce the ban on external speakers in mosques and suraus
throughout Penang, this is unacceptable.”
Azmi hoped the governor would present their concerns
at the Conference of Rulers so as to bring this matter to the attention of the
Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
Islamic affairs in Penang come under the purview of
the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, who is head of the religion in states without a
ruler.
Earlier today, Penang mufti Wan Salim Mohd Noor told
FMT that limits on the external loudspeaker use were merely an advisory, which
was made after those staying near mosques and suraus complained. He said the
hue and cry over the matter was probably politically motivated.
He said the complainants included those who are sick
and elderly, young children and those studying.
“But we have yet to gazette them as fatwas, as many
Muslims are unable to grasp the reason for the ban,” he said.
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2020/10/23/muslim-groups-urge-governor-to-overturn-loudspeaker-ban/
--------
Indonesia Deports 4 Uyghur Terrorism Convicts to
China, Experts Say
2020-10-23
Four Uyghur Muslims convicted in 2015 of
terror-related offenses in Indonesia were deported last month after the Chinese
government paid the fines imposed on them, two counter-terrorism experts told
BenarNews on Friday.
When asked where they had been sent, both experts
confirmed that the four men were deported to China, where authorities are
believed to have held up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in
a network of internment camps as part of an extralegal campaign of
incarceration that began in early 2017.
“They were deported in September and the fines were
paid by the Chinese government,” Deka Anwar, a researcher at the Institute for
Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), told BenarNews.
The four – Ahmet Mahmud, Altinci Bayram, Ahmet
Bozoglan and Abdul Basit Tuzer – were sentenced to six years in prison and were
fined 100 million rupiah (U.S. $6,812) by a Jakarta court after being found
guilty of entering the country by using fake passports and for attempting to
join the Islamic State-affiliated Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT) militant
group.
Muhammad Taufiqurrohman, a senior researcher at the
Center for Radicalism and Deradicalization Studies (PAKAR), said that the four
men were repatriated to China after immigration officers transported them to a
detention center from Nusa Kambangan, an island-prison complex off Java, on
Sept. 17.
“Immigration officers came to Nusa Kambangan with a
letter to pick them up, saying they were to be transferred to an immigration
detention center,” Taufiqurrohman told BenarNews. He also confirmed the
information that Chinese authorities had paid the Uyghur men’s fines.
On Friday, BenarNews contacted the Chinese embassy in
Jakarta for comment on the four men’s deportation, but officials there did not
immediately respond.
The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Teuku Faizasyah, said he had no information on the matter and asked BenarNews
to contact the Ministry of Law and Human Rights.
Reinhard Silitonga, the director general of corrections
at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, told BenarNews he couldn’t confirm
whether the four men had been deported.
And officials at the immigration department could not
be reached immediately to confirm that the Uyghurs had been expelled.
‘Vocational centers’
PAKAR’s Taufiqurrohman said Indonesia carried out the
deportation of the four men in secret because many in the world’s most populous
Muslim-majority nation criticize China’s alleged mistreatment of the Uyghurs,
who mostly live in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) in northwestern
China.
“The [Indonesian] government would be heavily
criticized and be labelled complicit in the Chinese government’s oppression of
Uyghur Muslims,” if the deportation of the four Uyghurs was made public,
Taufiqurrohman said.
For more than three years, the Chinese government has
allegedly imprisoned hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs in detention camps and
subjected those not detained to intense surveillance, religious restrictions
and forced sterilizations, said a report published in June by the Council on
Foreign Relations, a U.S.-based think-tank.
Chinese officials have repeatedly denied these
allegations, saying the camps are centers for vocational training and that the
thousands of Uyghur Muslims arrested had links to extremism.
BenarNews informed Usman Hamid, executive director of
Amnesty International in Indonesia, about Deka’s and Taufiqurrohman’ assertion
that Indonesia had deported the four Uyghurs who had been in prison on
terrorism charges.
Usman said the Indonesian government must provide an
explanation on the fate of the four Uyghurs.
“The Indonesian government must immediately provide an
official statement regarding the truth of the report about the deportation of
the four Uyghurs,” Usman said.
“Deporting them to a country that could put them at
real risk of human rights violations is illegal under international law. We
understand that the pandemic situation poses challenges to the government, but
deporting foreigners who are at risk of being subjected to human rights
violations is not a solution.”
Four years ago, Indonesia had turned down a request
from the Chinese government to exchange a fugitive Indonesian banker captured
in China for the four Uyghur prisoners serving terrorism-related sentences.
Indonesia told China that a prisoner swap wasn’t
possible because the charges against the four Uyghurs were different from those
against the Indonesia banker.
Back then, an Indonesian official who requested
anonymity said Indonesia would face international pressure if the country
agreed to deport the Uyghur prisoners to China.
“Giving Uyghurs back to China is the same as killing
them. Most probably, the Chinese government will execute them instantly,” the
official told BenarNews in April 2019.
In the years since, the Indonesian government has
faced criticism at home and abroad for its silence on the alleged mistreatment
of Uyghurs in XUAR.
“Indonesia – which has played a positive role in the
Rohingya refugee crisis – has shown its commitment to promoting rights
elsewhere in the region. It should do no less for China’s Muslims,” Human
Rights Watch said in January.
Last December, thousands of people took to the streets
in Indonesia and Malaysia to protest China’s treatment of the Muslim minority
community.
“The Indonesian government must not remain silent
about the suffering there, because according to our constitution, occupation
and oppression must be abolished,” a 48-year-old protester told BenarNews
during a demonstration outside the Chinese embassy in Jakarta.
Days before the protest, Moeldoko, President Joko
Widodo’s chief of staff, said Indonesia would not interfere in Chinese domestic
affairs when asked why the government was not more vocal about the Uyghur
issue.
“Each country has its own sovereignty to regulate its
citizens. The Indonesian government won’t interfere in the domestic affairs of
China.” Moeldoko said.
His comments came after The Wall Street Journal
reported that Beijing had launched a “concerted campaign” to convince
Indonesia’s religious authorities and journalists that the Xinjiang camps were
a “well-meaning effort” to provide job training.
Expatriate communities in Turkey, other nations
Thousands of Uyghurs have fled China since their
alleged persecution began in 2012, and made their way to Turkey and other
countries.
IPAC’s Deka said that between 2014 and 2016, at least
13 Uyghurs had entered Indonesia illegally via Malaysia and joined radical
groups.
They had left China, via the border with Laos, for
Thailand, and then continued their journey to join the thousands of Uyghur
asylum seekers in Malaysia, Deka said.
“In Malaysia, they got help to forge documents so they
could go to Turkey. However, many of those who made it to Turkey were
eventually deported back to Kuala Lumpur. Some of them then crossed to Batam
via Johor,” said Deka, referring to an Indonesian island near Singapore.
“In Batam, they were picked up by members of the
Bahrun Naim network,” he added, referring to an Islamic State fighter from
Indonesia who died in Syria in 2018.
The four Uyghurs convicted in 2015 came to Indonesia
with the intention of joining the militant MIT group and “performing acts of
terror,” said the judge who led a panel of jurists that convicted the men.
While the Uyghurs’ lawyer had argued that they were
Turkish citizens vacationing in Indonesia, government lawyers said the men had
fake Turkish passports and were en route to meet Indonesia’s most wanted
terrorist of that time, Santoso, when they were arrested in Central Sulawesi in
September 2014.
Santoso was killed by security forces in July 2016.
Deka and Taufiqurrohman said the four Uyghurs were
among the last Uyghur militants in Indonesia after others were killed by police
and troops hunting for MIT militants in Central Sulawesi.
Six Uyghur men who joined MIT were killed in 2016
during a large security operation in Poso regency.
https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/indonesian/id-uyghur-10232020154957.html
--------
North America
US vows to starve Hezbollah of funds, support on
anniversary of 1983 Beirut bombing
Joseph Haboush
23 October 2020
The United States will maintain its campaign to
dismantle Hezbollah’s financing and operational networks, Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo said on Friday, marking 37 years since the Iran-backed group bombed
Marine Barracks in Beirut.
Washington will continue to “target, disrupt, and
dismantle Hezbollah’s financing and operational networks, and will continue to
take all actions available to starve this terrorist entity of funds and
support,” Pompeo said.
“We are grateful for the nations around the world that
have designated or acted to ban the activities of Hezbollah as a terrorist
organization,” he added.
In 1983, a suicide bombing killed 241 American service
members, making it one the deadliest attack on US troops on foreign soil.
Pompeo said the bombing and those that followed made clear
Hezbollah’s commitment to violence and bloodshed. “These terrorist acts have
unmasked Iran, Hezbollah’s patron, as a rogue state willing to pursue its
malevolent interests at all costs,” he said.
On Thursday, the US placed sanctions on two senior Hezbollah
officials as the maximum-pressure campaign seeks to cut off funding to Iran and
its proxies worldwide.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/10/23/US-vows-to-starve-Hezbollah-of-funds-support-on-anniversary-of-1983-Beirut-bombing
--------
US Democratic senators introduce bill to restrict F-35
sales to UAE
23 October 2020
Two Democratic lawmakers in the US senate have
introduced a bill aimed at restricting Washington’s plans to sell F-35 fighter
jets to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as part of a declared congressional bid
to secure the Israeli regime's alleged military advantage in the region.
The legislation, introduced by Senators Bob Menendez
and Dianne Feinstein, would require the White House to certify that Israel's
military edge would not be jeopardized before the US starts selling its most
advanced military aircraft to West Asian countries.
"Ensuring that the United States and its crucial
partner in the Middle East, Israel, maintain their critical qualitative
military advantages over all potential adversaries is enshrined in law and must
be one of the highest priorities of any president and Congress," Menendez,
the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a
statement.
"This rush to close an F-35 deal by President
Donald Trump before the end of his term could well undermine that
objective," he added.
Under Menendez and Feinstein’s bill, Washington would
also have to certify that in 180 days and every year for 10 years the Israel's
qualitative military edge has not been undermined after the delivery of the
aircraft.
“Congress has an obligation to make sure that the most
sophisticated US weaponry be limited to our use and that of our most trusted
allies,” Feinstein said in a statement.
“That’s why this legislation places significant limits
on this or any future administration’s ability to sell the F-35 aircraft to the
Middle East, where it could threaten our interests and Israel’s military edge
in the region,” she added.
The Trump administration has been working to advance
Abu Dhabi’s longstanding request to buy F-35s after the UAE and Israel signed a
normalization agreement at the White House in August.
Reuters reported last month that Washington and Abu
Dhabi hope to have an initial deal on the F-35s by early December.
Israel and the UAE, on August 13, reached a deal that
will lead to a full normalization of diplomatic relations between the two
sides, in an agreement apparently brokered by US President Donald Trump.
The agreement sparked anger in the Middle East and
elsewhere, with Palestinian leaders describing it as a “stab in the back” by an
Arab country.
For decades, Washington has refrained from Middle East
arms sales due to its Israel policy to ensure Tel Aviv’s alleged qualitative
military edge (QME) in the Middle East. This had applied to the F-35, denied to
Arab states, while Israel has bought and deployed it.
Moreover, Israel itself seeks to have a share in the
lucrative arms market of Persian Gulf kingdoms, including Saudi Arabia and the
UAE who spend lavishly on high-tech weapons.
The American and Israeli arms sales to the UAE are
also believed to be part of their plan to arm Persian Gulf kingdoms to counter
what they call the “Iranian threat”.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/23/637041/US-Democratic-lawmakers-F-35-fighter-jets-UAE
--------
US suspends visa services in Turkey after reports on
potential attacks
23 October 2020
The United States has temporarily suspended all visa
services at its missions across Turkey over what it claimed to be credible
reports of potential terrorist attacks and kidnappings against American
citizens in the country.
The US embassy in the Turkish capital, Ankara, said in
a statement on its website Friday that consular services would be suspended at
the embassy as well as consulates in Istanbul, the southern city of Adana and
the Aegean coastal city of Izmir.
"The US mission in Turkey has received credible
reports of potential terrorist attacks and kidnappings against US citizens and
foreign nationals in Istanbul, including against the US Consulate General, as
well as potentially other locations in Turkey," the embassy said.
The diplomatic mission also advised US citizens
"to exercise heightened caution in locations where Americans or foreigners
may gather, including large office buildings or shopping malls.”
A US embassy spokesperson said the statement was
issued after an ongoing assessment of security conditions in Turkey.
Back in 2013, a bomber blew himself up at the US
embassy in Ankara, killing himself and a Turkish security guard.
In 2016, the US government ordered all civilian
relatives of its Istanbul consulate staff to leave Turkey because of increasing
threats from terrorist groups.
Turkey was hit by a series of attacks in 2015 and 2016
by several terrorist outfits, including the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/23/637049/US-suspends-visa-services-Turkey-possible-attacks
--------
Chaos-hit US sanctions three Iranian entities over
election meddling claims
23 October 2020
The US administration has imposed sanctions on three
Iranian organizations over accusations of running a disinformation campaign
targeting the upcoming US presidential election.
The US Treasury Department added on Thursday the Bayan
Rasaneh Gostar Institute, the Iranian Islamic Radio and Television Union and
International Union of Virtual Media to its sanctions list over what it claimed
"brazen attempts" to interfere with the US election and US voters.
The Treasury claimed that the three organizations
worked to "sow discord among the voting populace by spreading
disinformation online and executing malign influence operations aimed at
misleading US voters" ahead of the US presidential election on November 3.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and
the IRGC’s Qods Force were also targeted on Thursday by a new round of
sanctions on behalf of the US Treasury, which accused them of controlling the
three organizations and spreading disinformation in the run-up to the US
presidential election.
The sanctions, which forbid Americans and US entities
from doing business with the Iranian groups, would have little impact as the
IRGC and IRGC-Qods Force have already been subject to such restrictive
measures.
In a separate development on Thursday, the US Treasury
Department also imposed sanctions against Iranian Ambassador to Baghdad Iraj
Masjedi, alleging that the envoy was a "close adviser" to Iran's top
anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated
by the US in Iraq in January.
The Treasury claimed that Masjedi had used his role as
Tehran's ambassador to "obfuscate financial transfers" benefitting
the IRGC.
The Treasury’s latest sanctions come as Iran has
already dismissed as “absurd” US claims of an Iranian attempt to influence American
voters.
Alireza Miryousefi, the spokesman for Iran's United
Nations mission, rejected as “malign and dangerous” claims by US national
security officials that the Islamic Republic was attempting to influence
American voters.
Miryousefi said the US is desperately trying to
question the outcome of its own elections and underlined that Tehran, unlike
Washington, does not interfere in other countries’ elections.
Iran summons Swiss ambassador over US claims
Also on Thursday, Iran summoned the ambassador of
Switzerland, who represents US interests in Tehran, to reject the
"fabricated and clumsy" allegations of Tehran’s meddling in the US
elections.
US authorities "have put forward a baseless claim
on the verge of the country's election so that they would advance their
undemocratic and predefined scenario through shifting the blame," Iran's
foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a statement.
American voters will decide on November 3 whether
Republican President Donald Trump remains at the White House for another four
years or his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, will take office.
President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that it
does not matter for Iran which person or party wins the US presidential race as
the winner will have “no other choice but to surrender to the Iranian nation.”
The US under Trump unleashed a so-called maximum
pressure campaign against Iran in 2018, when it unilaterally left the 2015
multilateral nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Following its withdrawal, Washington targeted the
Iranian nation with the “toughest ever” economic sanctions in order to bring it
to its knees, but the country’s economy keeps humming and is getting back on
its feet.
The accusations against Iran regarding interference in
US elections came after longstanding Washington concerns about the role of
Russia.
Trump’s associates and his campaign team are accused
of cooperating with Russia in the 2016 presidential election, with the
Republican president and Moscow both rejecting the allegation.
The US incumbent has repeatedly voiced anger at the
"Russia hoax," describing it as a way to discredit his election
victory.
Schism deepens as US blame game warms over election
meddling
With less than 10 days before the US election race,
divisions have widened among American officials over placing the blame on
Russia and Iran as well as rival parties inside the country for potential vote
rigging and electoral fraud in the forthcoming election.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused Russia, and not
Iran, of being the real villain in allegations by senior US intelligence
officials that Moscow and Tehran have sought to meddle in the upcoming vote.
This is while US security officials have been warning
that "violent domestic extremists" pose a much bigger threat to the
presidential election on November 3.
A recent internal FBI bulletin warned that domestic
extremists with varying ideologies would likely pose an increasing threat to
the US government and election-related targets in the run-up to the November
vote.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also said
in a memo dated to August 17 that ideologically-driven extremists and other
actors “could quickly mobilize” to engage in violence related to the election.
The memo said that white supremacists — backed by
Trump and his administration — and lone offenders with “personalized
ideologies” pose the greatest threat of deadly violence.
The FBI arrested, earlier in the month, 13 right-wing
extremist "militias" over involvement in a plot to kidnap the
governor of Michigan and "instigate a civil war."
The FBI said such groups constitute the greatest
domestic terror threat to the country, but Trump has appeared to encourage
some, leading to worries of political violence around the November 3
presidential election.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/10/23/637032/US-Treasury-Department-sanctions-Iranian-organizations-disinformation-campaign
--------
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/jeremy-breaud-cut-head-off/d/123254
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism