Muslim Community Members Offer Baqrid Prayers by Maintaining Social Distancing, Wearing Masks in Mosques
New Age Islam News Bureau
3
Aug 2020
• Ahead of
Bhoomi Pujan, Ayodhya DM Hands Over Five-Acre Plot for Mosque
• Pakistan,
Bangladesh in ‘Quiet’ Diplomacy To Ease Decades Of Acrimony
• Pakistan's
Uighur Muslims Internal Study Hopes China Takes CBMs; Seeks Better
Understanding of Islam
• US Proposes
House Arrest For ‘Most Dreaded’ Taliban Inmates To Break Deadlock In Talks:
Report
• Alleged War
Crimes by British Special Forces in Afghanistan Set To Have Major Repercussions
---------
India
• Muslim
Community Members Offer Bakrid Prayers by Maintaining Social Distancing,
Wearing Masks in Mosques
• Ahead of
Bhoomi Pujan, Ayodhya DM Hands Over Five-Acre Plot for Mosque
• Farooq
Abdullah calls for probe into exodus of Kashmiri Pandits
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South Asia
• Pakistan,
Bangladesh in ‘Quiet’ Diplomacy To Ease Decades Of Acrimony
• Pakistan Must
Engage in Civilised, Friendly Relationship with Afghanistan: Hamid Karzai
• Attack on
prison in Afghanistan continues; at least 11 dead
• Iran arrests pro-Taliban
supporters who celebrated Eid by waving Taliban flag in Tehran
• 13 killed, 42
wounded in coordinated attack on Nangarhar prison in East of Afghanistan
• Three dead in
attack claimed by ISIS on Afghan jail, scores of prisoners escape
--------
Pakistan
• Pakistan's
Uighur Muslims Internal Study Hopes China Takes CBMs; Seeks Better
Understanding of Islam
• A Karachi
gangster turned Tehran spy highlights complicated Pakistan-Iran ties
• Experts rule
out repeat of Eid ul Fitr virus outbreak
• Erdogan
assures Pakistan of support on Kashmir in calls to President Alvi, PM Imran
--------
North America
• US Proposes
House Arrest For ‘Most Dreaded’ Taliban Inmates To Break Deadlock In Talks:
Report
• US Sanctions
Chinese Paramilitary Unit Over Uighurs
• Sudan welcomes
Mike Pompeo’s remarks on terror designation
--------
Europe
• Alleged War
Crimes by British Special Forces in Afghanistan Set To Have Major Repercussions
• Emails
implicate elite British SAS in Afghan massacres
• Muslim British
lord receives apology for extremism slur
--------
Arab world
• Lebanon
Dismantles Israeli Spying Device
• Syria says US
oil firm signed deal with Kurdish-led SDF
• Amid tensions
in Libya, Turkey’s hostile statements about UAE a provocation: Bahrain
• Lebanon's FM
Hitti submits resignation over government performance: Local media
• Coronavirus:
Egypt detects lowest figure of new COVID-19 cases since May
• American drone
operated by Saudi-led coalition shot down by Yemen’s army
--------
Mideast
• Iran Strongly
Blasts US for Sheltering Terrorists
• Israeli court
orders Netanyahu’s son to stop ‘harassing’ protest leaders
• Iran’s
Speaker: Tehran Ready to Increase Parliamentary Cooperation with Moscow
• Tehran
Determined to Promote Ties with Kabul
• Israel’s PM
Netanyahu rails at media over protests against him
• Taliban
supporters celebrate Eid al-Adha in Tehran, photos show
• Israeli
warplanes launch fresh air raids in Gaza Strip
• US House
passes spending package valued at $500mn for Israel’s missile systems
--------
Africa
• Sudan Welcomes
Mike Pompeo Comments On Ending Terror Listing
• Tunisia’s
embattled Islamist parliament speaker narrowly survives confidence vote
• Turkey, UAE
clash over Libya conflict, trade accusations of interference
• Haftar warns
Erdogan: Stay out of Libya or you face our bullets
• Cameroon: 18
civilians killed in Boko Haram attack
--------
Southeast Asia
• Azmin Meets
with Dr Mahathir At Putra Mosque Just to Wish Him ‘Selamat Hari Raya’
• A test of
perseverance for Muslim migrant workers
Compiled by New
Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/muslim-community-members-offer-baqrid/d/122531
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Muslim community members offer Baqrid prayers by maintaining social distancing, wearing masks in mosques
Aug 1, 2020
Image of Eid Al adha prayer
in Karimnagar used for representation. (Photo | EPS
-----
LUDHIANA: With
Covid-19 threat looming large over Ludhiana district, Muslim community members
offered Bakrid prayers by maintaining social distancing and wearing masks in
mosques of the district including at historic Jama Masjid in Ludhiana on
Saturday. However, a sizeable number of community members including Elderly and
Children offered Eid prayers at home only.
Addressing the
small gathering at Jama Masjid, Shahi Imam Punjab Maulana Habib-ur-Rehman Saani
Ludhianvi said that they celebrate the day in the memory of Prophet Ibrahim who
taught humans that if time comes one shouldn’t be afraid of sacrificing the
dearest thing in the name of Allah. He added that taking cue from this
teaching, thousands of Muslim community members sacrificed their lives fighting
British to get freedom to the motherland.
"Even today
if the nation needs, Muslim community members are ready for sacrifice for the
motherland,” Shahi Imam said. He added that this is the day when Allah blesses
people and Almighty had ordered that to help poor and needy people on this day.
Religious head
asked the community members to help the poor and needy people living in their
neighbourhood irrespective of their religion. He asked the community members to
pray to Allah to get humanity rid of the pandemic.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ludhiana/ludhiana-muslim-community-members-offer-bakrid-prayers-by-maintaining-social-distancing-wearing-masks-in-mosques/articleshow/77301607.cms
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Ahead Of Bhoomi
Pujan, Ayodhya DM Hands Over Five-Acre Plot For Mosque
Aug 3, 2020
Prepration of ‘Bhoomi Pujan’
ceremony for Ram Temple, Ayodhya
-----
AYODHYA: Ahead
of ‘Bhoomi Pujan’ ceremony for Ram Temple, Ayodhya district magistrate Anuj
Kumar Jha handed over the five-acre land mandated by the Supreme Court in lieu
of Babri Masjid to Sunni Waqf Board on Saturday. A delegation of Indo-Islamic
Cultural Foundation (IICF) – the trust formed recently by the Sunni Waqf Board
for construction of the mosque at Dhannipur village in Faizabad – met the
Ayodhya district magistrate at his residence on Saturday.
The delegation
was led by Sunni Waqf Board’s president Zufar Faruqi and chief executive
officer Sayyad Mohammad Shoib.
“The district
magistrate formally handed over the possession of land for the mosque to the
Trust members by giving the certified copy of revenue record (‘khatauni’),”
Shoib told TOI.
Shoib also said
the members of the trust would meet soon to decide on the future course of
action.
In its verdict
on November 9, 2019, the Supreme Court had mandated handing over of five-acre
land to the Sunni Waqf Board at a prominent place in Ayodhya in lieu of the
demolished structure in Ayodhya. In February 2020, the UP government announced
allotment of land at Dhannipur village in Sadar tehsil of Faizabad in Ayodhya
district, about 25 kilometres away from Ram Janambhoomi premises.
On July 29, the
Sunni Waqf Board announced the names of nine members of the trust to take up
the construction of the mosque.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/ahead-of-bhoomi-pujan-ayodhya-dm-hands-over-five-acre-plot-for-mosque/articleshow/77323306.cms
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Pakistan,
Bangladesh in ‘quiet’ diplomacy to ease decades of acrimony
August 02, 2020
Pakistani Prime Minister
Imran Khan and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during a summit of the
Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Makkah. (Files/AFP)
-----
ISLAMABAD/DHAKA:
As India’s relations with its neighbors in the South Asian region deteriorate,
old foes Pakistan and Bangladesh are making a push to build diplomatic,
economic and cultural ties that could upend decades of historic arrangements in
the region, officials and experts in Islamabad and Dhaka have said.
Indeed, a number
of recent diplomatic developments have hinted at a thaw in a long-troubled
Pakistan-Bangladesh equation.
Prime Minister
Imran Khan invited his Bangladeshi counterpart, Sheikh Hasina, to visit
Islamabad in a rare call earlier this month that came just weeks after a
“quiet” meeting between Pakistan’s high commissioner to Dhaka, Imran Ahmed
Siddiqui, and Bangladeshi Foreign Minister A. K. Abdul Momen.
Relations
between the two countries have never recovered from the 1971 war when Bengali
nationalists, backed by India, broke away from what was then West Pakistan to
form a new country.
Ties reached a
new low in 2016 when Bangladesh executed several leaders of its Jamaat-e-Islami
party on charges of committing war crimes in 1971. Pakistan called the
executions and trials “politically motivated,” arguing that they were related
to the pro-Pakistan stance of the convicts during the war. But now, officials
on both sides say it is time for a reset.
“We look forward
to having a sustained dialogue with the government of Bangladesh on how best
our bilateral relations can move forward on a positive trajectory,” Pakistan’s
foreign office spokesperson Aisha Farooqui told Arab News on Thursday. “We hope
to work and take forward our relations, whether it’s trade, culture and all
other mutual areas.”
Ambassador
Siddiqui declined to give details of his meeting with Momen but told Arab News
that the aim of the huddle was “to further promote bilateral relations with a
forward-looking approach” given a desire from both sides to strengthen ties,
particularly through private-sector partnerships.
“The younger
generation is especially keen to forge meaningful ties. There is a huge
potential in bilateral economic and commercial cooperation,” he said. “The two
sides may work together to realize this potential with a focus on bringing our
respective private sectors closer.” Mohammad Ruhul Alam Siddique, Bangladesh’s
high commissioner-designate to Pakistan, also said that he aimed to improve
trade and commercial ties between the two nations during his tenure.
“My only mission
will be to better the bilateral relations as much as possible while delivering
services in Pakistan,” he said, saying his first task in the coming weeks would
be to reduce the trade imbalance between the two countries.
According to the
State Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan’s exports to Bangladesh reached $736 million
in 2019, while Bangladesh’s exports to Pakistan were only $44 million.
Pakistan and
Bangladesh’s embrace comes at a time when relations between India and many
countries in the region are unraveling.
Last month, the
Indian army said that at least 20 of its soldiers were killed after
hand-to-hand fighting with Chinese troops at a disputed border site, the
deadliest clash
India also has
increasingly tense ties with Nepal over disputed land — about 372 square km —
strategically located at the tri-junction between Nepal, India and the Tibet
region of China. India has kept a security presence in the area since a border
war with China in 1962.
Pakistan and
India have also warred for decades over the disputed Kashmir region, which both
claim in full and rule in part.
“We see there
are problems (of India) with China in the border region, problems with Nepal,
some problems with Bangladesh as well, and of course, with Pakistan on Jammu
and Kashmir,” Farooqui said. “These policies do not make India effective for
peace and stability in the region.”
Explaining the
context of a reset in Pakistan-Bangladesh ties, Pakistani prime minister’s
special adviser on security, Moeed Yusuf, said in a veiled reference to India:
“The context is very clear; there is one country that is threatening, annoying
and upsetting all its neighbors.”
In response to
an email from Arab News, the spokesperson for the Indian high commission in
Islamabad, Vipul Dev, referred to a statement by the spokesperson for the
Indian External Affairs Ministry last week after the Pakistani PM’s call to
Hasina, saying India’s relationship with Bangladesh was “time-tested and
historic.”
“This year both
countries are taking a lot of steps to strengthen this partnership,” the
ministry spokesperson said.
Despite enduring
ties between India and Bangladesh, experts say that Islamabad must continue to
push its rapprochement with Dhaka, still in its infancy, forward.
“Now it’s
Pakistan’s responsibility to rebuild the relationship,” international relations
expert, Prof. Delwar Hossain, said.
For this, said
Pakistan’s former high commissioner to India, Abdul Basit, the Pakistani prime
minister needed to “follow up” on his call to his Bangladeshi counterpart.
“Prime Minister
Imran Khan should write a formal invitation to his Bangladeshi counterpart
which will help keep the momentum going,” Basit said, adding that a special
envoy to Dhaka should be appointed, as Pakistan had recently done for Kabul.
“We should focus more on working behind-the-scenes to avoid unnecessary hype,”
Basit said. “It should be a consistent process.”
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1713321/world
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Pakistan's
Uighur Muslims internal study hopes China takes CBMs; seeks better
understanding of Islam
Aug 02, 2020
China needs to
come up with Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) in Xinjiang and a "better
understanding of the religion" will be helpful for Chinese authorities in
"understanding the people's aspirations and concerns" are the key
findings of the internal assessment carried out by Pakistan to understand the
mood of the public on the situation of Uighur Muslims in China.
The internal
assessment by Pakistan on public sentiment on the atrocities against Uighurs
Muslims carried out by the Chinese government in the restive western province
of Xinjiang saw religious Urdu journals being more vocal about it.
The assessment
recommended that "reliable and mature religious" leaders need to be
kept on frequent communication. And these religious leaders should feel the
"closeness" in which they may give a suggestion to Chinese
authorities on the issue.
But largely a
relook by Chinese authorities of "governance" is what is needed--this
includes revisiting approach of compulsory and forcible re-education of Uighur
Muslims.
While Pakistani
internal assessment has lauded Chinese leadership in the long term strategy of
mainstreaming and integration of people of Xinjiang, the report suggests the
common population should not be seen as a collective threat. It hopes fasting,
prayers, recitation of Quran should be allowed since these are important tenets
of Islam and restrictions over them is a cause discomfort.
The internal
report has recommended that Muslims should be allowed the freedom to perform
their rituals which will give a positive message inside and outside of
China.
In fact, the
news of curbs and restrictions on the Muslim way of life in other parts of
China as well is seen as extremely disturbing for anyone in Pakistan, the
report concurs.
It is important
to know, Pakistan has banned online publication of extremist journals Hittin.
The primary cause has been that it has been very critical of Chinese influence
in Pakistan and Beijing should not be seen as a well-wisher to people of the
region.
It has talked
about the mammoth infrastructure project the China Pakistan economic corridor
in the same context and highlighted the "plight of Muslims in East
Turkistan". Xinjiang is also referred to as East Turkestan especially by
extremist and terror groups -- East Turkestan Islamic Movement.
https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/pakistans-uighur-muslims-internal-study-hopes-china-takes-cbms-seeks-better-understanding-of-islam-317664
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US proposes
house arrest for ‘most dreaded’ Taliban inmates to break deadlock in talks:
Report
02 August 2020
The United
States has reportedly proposed that the Taliban militants deemed dangerous be
placed under house arrest following their release from Afghan jails as a
solution to the stalemate that has delayed the intra-Afghan peace process.
Citing senior
official sources, Reuters reported Friday that Washington proposed that Kabul
transfer Taliban prisoners to a facility, which would be under the surveillance
of both the Afghan government and the militant group.
The proposal was
presented this week to the Afghan warring sides by top US diplomats, the
sources said.
The Afghan
government is resisting freeing the final batch of some 5,000 prisoners whose
release is demanded by the Taliban as a condition to start peace talks.
Of the 400
Taliban prisoners left to be freed, over half stand accused of serious crimes,
including killing thousands of civilians and planning attacks against foreign
missions and government offices across the country.
Along with
Kabul, the US and its Western allies believe a number of the militants are too
dangerous to walk free.
“The Americans
and their allies agree that it would be insane to let some of the most dreaded
Taliban fighters walk out freely...the Afghan forces arrested them for
conducting some of the most heinous crimes against humanity,” said a senior
Western diplomat in Kabul.
President Ashraf
Ghani has said the decision on the release of the Taliban prisoners accused of
serious crimes should be made by Loya Jirga, a grand assembly of Afghan elders.
Taliban sources
and diplomats said the militant group was insistent on the freedom of the 400
militants on the list it has presented to Kabul.
“The Taliban are
adamant about their release, the only middle path is to get the Afghan
government to hand these militants to the Taliban if they agree to put them in
house arrest,” Reuters quoted a diplomat in Kabul as saying.
The intra-Afghan
peace talks were initially planned to start in March in the Qatari capital,
Doha, but the process has repeatedly been delayed amid the spat over the
prisoners, with Taliban keeping up their attacks across the country.
US Special Envoy
Zalmay Khalilzad paid a visit to Kabul this week and pressed Taliban leaders
and the president for “ongoing efforts to resolve the remaining issues ahead of
intra-Afghan negotiations,” including the prisoner release, the State
Department said without elaborating.
President Ghani
and the Taliban have, however, both signaled that the negotiations could begin
straight after the Muslim religious holiday of Eid al-Adha.
The Taliban
announced a three-day ceasefire starting on Friday for Eid holidays.
In response,
Ghani ordered the release of another 500 Taliban prisoners on Friday. He said
they were not part of those “dangerous” prisoners demanded by the militants.
The truce, which
is the third official ceasefire in nearly 19 years of war, has raised hopes for
peace talks to be start soon.
Since Friday,
there have been no reports of major clashes between the militants and
government forces.
In the southern
province of Kandahar, where the Taliban control swathes of rural terrains, no
fighting was reported.
“There are no
enemy movements or attacks by the Taliban,” said Baheer Ahmad, spokesperson for
the Kandahar governor.
Spokesperson to
the governor of the eastern province of Nangarhar also said that there have
been “no reports of any terrorist attacks in the past two days since the
ceasefire began.”
Nangarhar has
been the scene of regular clashes between government forces and the Taliban.
Ghani said last
week that more than 3,500 Afghan troops and nearly 800 civilians had been killed
since a peace deal was signed between the Taliban and the US in late February,
in Doha.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/08/02/630903/US-Afghanistan-Taliban-prisoners-house-arrest
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Alleged war
crimes by British Special Forces in Afghanistan set to have major repercussions
02 August 2020
New evidence has
come to light that British Special Forces in Afghanistan routinely committed
war crimes by shooting dead unarmed civilians.
The fresh
material follows an investigation by BBC Panorama which focuses on the concerns
of the Special Forces top brass that the units under their command were
routinely killing unarmed men and women as part of their operations.
At their height,
the operations, dubbed the “night raids”, occurred on a virtually nightly basis
and were ostensibly targeted at senior echelons of the Taliban militant
movement.
The new
documents – held by the courts – were recently released to the solicitors Leigh
Day as part of an active case at the High Court, which is set to rule on whether
allegations of unlawful killing by British Special Forces were originally
investigated properly.
The original
complainant in the case is Afghan national, Saifullah Ghareb Yar, who claims
four members of his family were “assassinated” by UK Special Forces in the
early hours of February 16, 2011.
The case is of
seminal importance especially in the light of the British government’s
consistent refusal to properly investigate alleged war crimes committed by
British troops – both regular and Special Forces – in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The situation
has deteriorated to the point that the International Criminal Court (ICC)
intervened back in November 2019 by stating its willingness to investigate the
British military for the first time.
The ICC’s
intervention has been widely interpreted as a major embarrassment to the
British government and military alike.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/08/02/630942/UK-Afghanistan-Special-Forces-War-Crimes-ICC-
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India
Farooq Abdullah
calls for probe into exodus of Kashmiri Pandits
August 2, 2020
Former Jammu and
Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah on Sunday demanded a probe by retired
Supreme Court judges into the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley in
early 1990s.
Replying to
questions during a webinar, Abdullah said he was of the firm belief that
Kashmir is incomplete without Kashmiri Pandits and that he would support any
mechanism to bring them back honourably.
Nearly 60,000
Kashmiri Pandit families are registered as migrants after the onset of
militancy in the Kashmir Valley in early 1990s.
Abdullah, a
member of Lok Sabha and president of the National Conference, chose to blame
then former Governor Jagmohan for the exodus and said that he “took them away”
on the false promise of ensuring their return within three months.
During the
webinar hosted by Jammu-based Epilogue News Network on the theme, “Discerning
old order delineating new order-a year after neutralization of Article 370 and
abrogation of Article 35 A”, Abdullah was asked whether he would support a
genocide bill being floated by the Panun Kashmir, a Kashmiri Pandit
organisation demanding a separate homeland for the migrants. He said he would
have to go into the details of the bill first.
Abdullah, a
three-time chief minister, said, “A sincere and honest judge of Supreme Court,
retired judge of Supreme Court, a team of judges…let them investigate and come
out with their report. It will clear many minds around the globe, among the
younger Kashmiri Pandits, that it was not Kashmiri Muslims who threw them out.
There are still many Kashmiri Pandits who never left and they are living here.”
The National
Conference leader narrated many instances where Muslims had stood by the Pandit
community since 1947 and said “do you think we were happy when they (Kashmiri
Pandits) were taken away,” he said, adding “we always believe that Kashmir is
never going to be complete unless the Hindu brethren come back and live in
peace with all of us”.
Abdullah said he
would continue to uphold his party’s ideology of treating all the people,
irrespective of their religious belief, equally.
“My father never
believed in two-nation theory. He never believed that Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs,
Christians, Buddhists and all other religions are different. We believe all are
the children of Adam and Eve. Everybody’s needs are the same and so he worked
hard for unity. We will continue to stand on the same path and to my last
breath, I will work for the unity of all,” he said.
In December last
year, the Panun Kashmir adopted the Panun Kashmir Prevention of Genocide and
Atrocities Bill, highlighting its various demands including permanent
rehabilitation based on principles of non-refoulement.
Among other
things, the bill recommends creation of a Board and a Commission to look into
the aspects of cultural genocide and all the criminal aspects which include
investigation, procedure of trial, fixing of responsibility for the crime of
genocide, punishment to the perpetrators and compensation to the victims.
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/farooq-abdullah-calls-for-probe-into-exodus-of-kashmiri-pandits-6535976/
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South Asia
Pakistan must
engage in civilised, friendly relationship with Afghanistan: Hamid Karzai
Aug 1, 2020
KABUL:
Condemning the recent Afghanistan-Pakistan border clash in which nine people
were killed, former Afghan president Hamid Karzai urged Pakistan to "engage
in a civilised and friendly relationship with Afghanistan," TOLO news
reported.
"I once
again call on the govt of Pakistan to engage in a civilised and friendly
relationship with Afghanistan," Karzai was quoted as saying.
Citing a Defense
Ministry statement, TOLO news had on July 31 reported an overnight artillery
attack targeted residential areas in the Spin Boldak district of the Kandahar
province on the Afghan border with Pakistan.
The cross-border
shelling killed as many as nine Afghan civilians and left 50 others wounded.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/pakistan-must-engage-in-civilised-friendly-relationship-with-afghanistan-hamid-karzai/articleshow/77305263.cms
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Attack on prison
in Afghanistan continues; at least 11 dead
Aug 3, 2020
KABUL: A complex
attack by the Islamic State group against a prison in eastern Nangarhar
province continued Monday and has killed at least 11 people, a local official
said.
Another 42
people have been wounded in the gunbattle that began Sunday evening, said Zahir
Adil, spokesman for the provincial health department. He said the toll was
expected to rise.
The attack began
when a suicide car bomb exploded at the entrance gate of the prison in
Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province. A number of assailants then
opened fire on Afghan security forces. It wasn't clear how many assailants were
involved in the firefight.
A number of
prisoners have escaped during the attack, said another provincial official, who
spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the
media.
The Islamic
State group affiliate in Afghanistan, known as IS in Khorasan province, claimed
responsibility for the attack. The affiliate is headquartered in Nangarhar
province.
The prison
houses about 1,500 inmates, of which several hundred are believed to belong to
the Islamic State group affiliate in Afghanistan.
It wasn't
immediately clear if there were specific prisoners housed in the prison that
the attack was staged to free.
The attack comes
a day after the Afghan intelligence agency said a senior Islamic State group
commander was killed by Afghan special forces near Jalalabad.
The Taliban's
political spokesman Suhail Shaheen told The Associated Press, his group was not
inolved.
``We have a
cease-fire and are not involved in any of these attacks anywhere in the
country,'' he said.
The Taliban
declared a three-day cease-fire starting Friday for the major Muslim holiday of
Eid al-Adha. The cease-fire expired Monday at 12 a.m. though it wasn't
immediately clear if it would be extended as the U.S. pushes for an early start
to intra-Afghan negotiations that have repeatedly been delayed since Washington
signed a peace deal with the Taliban in February.
The Taliban had
also denied involvement in a suicide bombing in the eastern Logar province late
Thursday that killed at least nine people and wounded at least 40, authorities
said.
Afghanistan has
seen a recent spike in violence, with most attacks claimed by the local Islamic
State group affiliate.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/attack-on-prison-in-afghanistan-continues-at-least-11-dead/articleshow/77325959.cms
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Iran arrests
pro-Taliban supporters who celebrated Eid by waving Taliban flag in Tehran
03 Aug 2020
The Iranian
authorities arrested a group of Afghans who celebrated Eid al-Adha by waving
the flag of Taliban, Islamic Emirate, in a park in Tehran.
The local
intelligence and police officials confirmed to local media outlets that the
security forces arrested the group during an operation.
The officials
further added that the individuals were arrested in connection with the
publication of the pictures of Taliban flag which they had taken in Mellat Park
in Tehran during Eid days.
The suspects are
police custody and an investigation is underway from the detained individuals,
the officials added.
“The three-day
Eid ceasefire has also had a positive effect on the Taliban in Tehran, who roam
freely carrying their flag and enjoy peace and tranquillity,” Aref Ahmadi, a
social media user was quoted as saying in a report by Al Arabiya.
The Iranian
authorities reportedly acted to detain the Taliban supporters after the images
shocked Iranians on social media.
https://www.khaama.com/iran-arrests-pro-taliban-supporters-who-celebrated-eid-by-waving-taliban-flag-in-tehran-08995/
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13 killed, 42
wounded in coordinated attack on Nangarhar prison in East of Afghanistan
03 Aug 2020
The local
officials confirmed that a coordinated attack on the provincial prison left at
least 13 civilians dead and dozens more wounded.
Attaullah
Khogyani, a spokesperson for the provincial government, confirmed that the
attackers detonated a car packed with explosives, Vehicle-borne Improvised
Explosive Device (VBIED), close to Nangarhar province late on Sunday.
Khogyani further
added that the remaining assailants launched attack on prison compound
following the explosion which lasted for several hours.
He also added
that the security forces killed 3 of the assailant militants who were resisting
the security forces.
Meanwhile,
Khogyani said the attack left at least 13 civilians dead and around 42 others
wounded.
According to
Khogyani, the security forces also managed to round up around 700 inmates who
had seized the opportunity to break the prison and flee.
No individual or
group including Taliban has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.
https://www.khaama.com/13-killed-42-wounded-in-coordinated-attack-on-nangarhar-prison-in-east-of-afghanistan-08994/
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Three dead in
attack claimed by ISIS on Afghan jail, scores of prisoners escape
02 August 2020
An attack
claimed by ISIS terrorist group on a jail compound in the Afghan city of
Jalalabad killed at least three people and injured dozens, triggering heavy
fighting in which scores of prisoners escaped, an official said.
Sohrab Qaderi, a
provincial council member, said a huge car bomb explosion was followed by at
least two smaller blasts outside the government-run prison, and that police
then fought attackers who had taken up positions nearby.
ISIS group’s
Amaq news agency quoted a military source as saying its fighters had carried
out Sunday’s attack but gave no further details. There was no independent
confirmation that the militant group was responsible.
“At least three
people were dead and 25 were injured in the ongoing clashes,” Qaderi said. More
than 50 prisoner escaped, and the death toll could rise, he added.
For all the
latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
The assault
happened on the third and final day of a ceasefire between the Afghan
government and the Taliban, when hundreds of Taliban prisoners were released in
an attempt to make a final push for intra-Afghan peace talks.
The Taliban was
not responsible for the attack, a spokesman for the militant group said.
President Ashraf
Ghani and the Taliban have both indicated that long-delayed negotiations could
begin immediately after the Eid al-Adh festival, which took place in Kabul on
Thursday.
The Taliban says
it has freed all 1,000 Afghan prisoners it had pledged to release in a deal
with the United States.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/08/02/Three-dead-in-attack-claimed-by-ISIS-on-Afghan-jail-scores-of-prisoners-escape.html
--------
Pakistan
A Karachi
gangster turned Tehran spy highlights complicated Pakistan-Iran ties
By Suddaf
Chaudry
2 August 2020
Earlier this
month, a special investigations team in Pakistan revealed that a much-feared
Karachi gangster had confessed to spying for Iran.
Uzair Baloch,
the leader of the Peoples' Aman Committee (PAC) group, reportedly fessed up to
spying for Iranian intelligence agencies in 2014.
The Sindh
province's Home Department released a report on 6 July detailing allegations
that Baloch had provided "secret information and sketches regarding army
installations and officials to foreign agents".
But why are
these revelations coming out now? And what does the case reveal about the
complicated relations between Tehran and Islamabad?
Criminal minds
A Joint
Interrogation Team (JIT) composed of intelligence officers and law enforcement
officials has brought charges against Baloch, who was detained in April 2017,
for 55 crimes including extortion, drug trafficking, kidnapping and espionage.
The PAC was in
2008 nominally founded as a support group for the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP),
the centre-left political party that has ruled Pakistan for much of its
post-independence history. Notorious gangster Sardar Abdul Baloch aka Rehman
Dakait, its principle founder, was killed in a police encounter in 2009. Following
Dakait's death, Uzair Baloch took over the
leadership role.
Baloch's violent
and illegal activities in Karachi, the biggest metropolis in Pakistan, led to a
severe crackdown on organised crime, subsequently pushing the interior ministry
to ban the PAC in 2011 under the Anti-Terrorism Act. Amid a military and police
crackdown, Baloch fled to Iran in 2013, thanks to Iranian residency documents
he obtained in 2006 via a relative, the JIT report read.
According to the
same report, once Baloch settled in Iran after leaving Karachi, he was in
contact with a man named Hajji Nasir, who arranged to have him move to Tehran.
While Nasir
reportedly offered to help Baloch move to the Iranian capital and grant him
free accommodation, it was only later that he shared that he was on good terms
with Iranian intelligence agencies and could arrange a meeting.
It was then that
Baloch "shared information about certain army installations and armed
officials," according to the JIT report.
There is much
confusion regarding Baloch's arrest. In 2014 Interpol arrested Baloch in Dubai,
then the military in Pakistan announced that he was in custody in 2016. As his
trial was held at a closed military court, therefore, no details have been
shared publicly regarding specific details of the information shared with the
Iranian intelligence agencies.
The Inter
Services Intelligence (ISI) in Islamabad has not responded to Middle East Eye's
repeated requests for comment. The Iranian consul-general in Karachi meanwhile
declined to comment on the case.
Philip Smyth, a
fellow at The Washington Institute think-tank, told Middle East Eye that the
collaboration of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) with Baloch
was part of a broader strategy of recruitment of criminal gang leaders.
"They don't
simply try to penetrate typical networks that surround singular theological
interests, for instance the Shia [Muslim] community. Iranians have historically
used criminal networks," Smyth said, pointing to documents made public by
WikiLeaks alleging Iran tried to recruit Mexican criminal syndicate Los Zetas
to assassinate a Saudi diplomat in the US in 2011.
Baloch is not
the only person accused of carrying out espionage activities in Pakistan with
Iranian connections. Indian national Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav, who was arrested
in 2016 on charges of spying for Indian intelligence, was believed to have
entered Pakistan's Balochistan province via Iran that year.
"When you
have someone as powerful and dangerous as Baloch confessing to formally
cooperating with Iranian intelligence agencies, it has some pretty big
implications for Pakistan's foreign policy," Michael Kugelman, the deputy
director of the Asia Programme at the Washington DC-based Wilson Center, told
MEE.
"The
Iran-Pakistan border issues are mainly affected by the sectarian rivalry
between Iran and Saudi Arabia. For Pakistan, this is a costly and difficult
diplomatic situation at this time."
A porous border
Baloch
reportedly stated during interrogation that the Iranian government has been
providing major support to violent groups in Pakistan, raising troubling
questions about Iran's role in the neighbouring country.
The porous 900km
border between Iran and Pakistan has been home to several militant hideouts.
This area, known as the Pakistan-Iran Barrier, has witnessed a surge in attacks
in the last two years, prompting both countries to blame the other for not
investing more resources to remove the militant threat.
With Iran's
economy badly hit by US-led sanctions, the border has become a crucial avenue
for the black market.
"Right now,
the shift into broader criminality comes due to a variety of reasons,"
Smyth said. “Firstly the sanctions' pressure and the need to diversify [Iran's]
funding.
"It is also
a way to exert pressure on Islamabad if Pakistan has to deal with criminality,
potential for violence, and then other political ramifications that can arise
from that."
The Pakistani
coastal region of Makran next to Iran has been transformed by the illegal
smuggling of diesel, a trade that operates with local enforcement approval.
Taftan Mohammed
Waris, Assistant Commissioner - a senior civil servant - for Quetta told MEE
that "border issues are not part of my remit".
"I've only
been posted in this role for two months," he said.
However, Waris
was part of a Pakistani delegation who met with Iranian counterparts to discuss
illegal border crossings in April. Many analysts have raised doubts regarding
Pakistan's denial of complicity in the cross-border smuggling in Makran.
Militia
recruitment
The new IRGC
Quds Force commander, Esmail Ghaani, who succeeded Qassem Soleimani following
the latter's assassination in January, has long focused his career on
Afghanistan and Pakistan. He notably played a pivotal role in building Quds
Force ties with Shia Muslim militias hailing from Afghanistan and Pakistan.
While Baloch's
alleged espionage and arrest predate Ghaani's rise to Quds Force leadership,
his appointment to lead the prominent military intelligence unit has drawn
attention to Iranian operations in Pakistan, given the country's significant
Shia population, with some estimates putting it at up to 20 percent of the
country's 220 million people.
Smyth, who
produced a project on Shia militias for The Washington Institute, told MEE that
"the IRGC has recruited hundreds of Pakistani Shia for direct roles within
IRGC-run armed groups like Liwa Zainebiyoun," a Pakistani-majority brigade
fighting in Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad.
Smyth estimates
that Liwa Zainebiyoun counts anywhere between 1,500 and 3,500 members.
A recent report
by Pakistani news agency Samaa estimated there were more than 250 active
Pakistani fighters in Syria.
"A good
number of Shia organisations and clerics in Pakistan are open supporters of
Iran's transnational Islamist ideology of absolute Wilayat al-Faqih
[Guardianship of the Jurist]. Thus, Iran has a more solid base there,"
Smyth said.
"Based on
my research, Iran's focus on Pakistan has not decreased - not one bit. They are
still recruiting and seeking ways to operationalise and grow their links in the
country."
Alex
Vatanka, the director of the Iran
programme at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, disagrees.
"Ghaani is
not a strategist like Qassem Soleimani, he will only operate once a mandate is
given on Pakistan," he said.
However, Vatanka
said Pakistan was well aware of Iran's track record in recruiting Shia proxies
to help them achieve their goals in the region.
Silence in
Tehran, silence in Islamabad
Amid the
complicated ties between Iran and Pakistan, why has it taken three years for
the revelations made by Baloch during interrogation to be made public?
Between the
announcement of Baloch's arrest in 2017 and the recent publication of the JIT
report, the Pakistani army had shared no further details on the espionage
charges. "Islamabad has been relatively quiet and not been explicit in
accusing IRGC of having a hand in helping Pakistani militants," Vatanka
said.
Meanwhile,
Tehran has yet to issue any comments on the case.
"Timing is
important, but the legal situation in Pakistan is often lengthy," Kugelman
said.
He nonetheless
hypothesised that Baloch's ties to the PPP could be an instrument used by
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government "to hurt the opposition, to
expose their shortcomings by having a connection with a criminal who has been
colluding with the Iranians".
However, the
question remains whether members of the PPP who were closely affiliated with
Baloch ever knew he was spying on behalf of the Iranian government.
The reason why
Islamabad hasn't been far more vocal about the Iranian support to armed
militias in the region may further be tied to concerns within Pakistan.
Internal religious tensions have played a role in convincing some Shia
Pakistanis to join Iran-backed militias, according to a recruiter based in
Karachi who spoke to MEE on condition of anonymity.
"We recruit
from Karachi; it's easier in the upscale neighbourhoods. But otherwise my
network extends to KP [Khyber Pakhtunkhwa] and Parachinar," he said,
referring to a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa city close to the border with Afghanistan.
"We arrange the financials and many are willing. Shias are not treated
well in Pakistan, they are ready to take revenge."
For Vatanka,
"Islamabad tends to downplay the number of
Pakistani Shia fighting in Syria; they are probably greater in number
given the fact it has the third-largest Shia community in the world."
"If you are
Iran and you are struggling to recruit people for your ideological cause,
Pakistan is a natural place to recruit to fight under the Zainebiyoun or IRGC
flag," he said.
For Kugelman,
these practical political considerations have tempered Pakistan's tone towards
its neighbour.
"The
sizeable Shia community in Pakistan, which is about 20 percent of the
population, is why you don't hear Islamabad commenting on the border issues
with Iran," he said.
"This is an
acknowledgement that this is a very sensitive issue not just for Pakistan's
international relations, but for its internal stability."
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/pakistan-iran-gangster-uzair-baloch-spy-diplomacy
--------
Experts rule out
repeat of Eid ul Fitr virus outbreak
Ashfaq Yusufzai
03 Aug 2020
PESHAWAR:
Experts have ruled out the possibility of a large-scale coronavirus outbreak on
Eidul Azha like last Eidul Fitr saying a large number of people have recovered
from the infection and developed immunity.
Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa on Friday recorded five Covid-19 deaths, which took its overall
tally of the people killed by the virus to 1,199.
According to a
government report, 98 more new people were diagnosed with coronavirus in the
province, so the total count of such local cases reached 34,056.
Prof Khalid
Mahmood at the Lady Reading Hospital told Dawn that a spike in Covid-19 cases
was unlikely to happen after Eidul Azha.
“Eidul Azha is a
bit different from Eidul Fitr as socialising, shopping and greeting are not
that common,” he said.
The expert also
said hot and humid weather and immunity in those people, who had recovered from
coronavirus, were going to prevent the virus spread in the community.
Say humid
weather, immunity in recovered cases to prevent Covid-19 spread
He said as 179
more patients had recovered, making an overall number of recovered people
28,629 (84 per cent).
“It is known
that so far, the people who have recovered aren’t getting infection again due
to the acquired immunity to the virus. The same is the case with many other
viral diseases like measles and others.
“How long this
immunity will last in recovered patients isn’t known, so race is on for vaccine
development,” he said.
Prof Khalid said
no concrete local data was available but as a wild guess, 20-30 per cent of the
infection-prone and exposed population had had Covid-19, who were unlikely to
contract the infection again due to immunity.
He said the
population at risk had decreased, so the outbreak’s return may not be that bad.
CEO of Health
Net Hospital Professor Mohammad Amjad Taqweem said ‘hot, sweaty and smelly’
whether won’t allow the Eidul Fitr like crowding on Eidul Azha and would
provide protection against the virus.
“However, even
small parties can prove dangerous. All gatherings, small or big carries risk.
Pandemics have done this before. They become quiet, it appears as if they have
died out but they come back. This pandemic is behaving exactly like the
previous ones. I wish it disappears but the history tells it will come back
with vengeance,” he said.
Vice-Chancellor
of the Khyber Medical University Prof Ziaul Haq said the virus incidence was on
the decline.
“We now know
much about it, how to prevent, and manage it.”
The VC said many
vaccine and treatment trials were under process.
“The Almighty
Allah is so far very kind to Pakistan. Central and provincial governments, all
public and private organisations, armed forces, police, business community,
academia, print and electronic media, religious and political leaders from all
sects, parties and most importantly the people with limited resources and a
fragile health system have made themselves a role model for others,” he said.
He said
Pakistan’s gains in the fight against Covid-19 was commendable but if SOPs were
not followed on Eid and afterwards, cases could surge.
“As a public
health specialist, I strongly recommend to community and government to not let
your guard down, and it will be very unfortunate to loose from here. The same
has happened with Spain and Australia where cases are again on rise,” he said.
The expert said
we must not declare premature victory and continue living with ‘new normal’,
which included respiratory (mask for all, and cough and sneezing into arm or
tissues with safe disposal) and hand hygiene (washing frequently with soap for
at least 20 seconds).
Prof Zia asked
the people to avoid visiting crowded places, shaking of hands and hugging,
maintain six feet physical distance and follow all others home and workplace
SOPs.
“Remember its
not yet over until a vaccine or some tangible treatment is developed or virus
lose its potency. We are near to victory line but need more efforts to reach
there. The last round is the most difficult and frustrating one but don’t
forget the golden proverb “all is well that’s ends well,” he said.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1572217/experts-rule-out-repeat-of-eidul-fitr-virus-outbreak
--------
Erdogan assures
Pakistan of support on Kashmir in calls to President Alvi, PM Imran
03 Aug 2020
Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday assured his country's support for
Pakistan's stance on the Kashmir issue in a conversation with President Arif
Alvi.
The Turkish
leader also called Prime Minister Imran Khan on the occasion of Eidul Azha and
the two leaders shared their views on a range of issues.
"President
Dr Arif Alvi and President Erdogan exchanged Eidul Azha greetings in a
telephonic conversation. Important matters including Kashmir and Covid-19 were
discussed," a tweet by Alvi's office said.
It quoted
President Alvi as saying that occupation regimes were continuing their
"extreme repression" in Palestine and Indian-occupied Kashmir even
during the coronavirus pandemic.
"[The]
Turkish President assured that his country would continue to support Pakistan's
stance on Kashmir as both brotherly countries have similar goals,"
according to a second tweet.
Erdogan also
invited Alvi to visit Turkey after the end of the Covid-19 pandemic.
While
congratulating Erdogan on the reopening of Istanbul's Hagia Sophia as a mosque
after nearly nine decades, President Alvi "reiterated Pakistan’s steadfast
support to Turkey on its legitimate interests and assured that Pakistan will
continue its policy to provide Turkey with all possible support".
Prime Minister
Imran too felicitated President Erdogan on reopening of the Hagia Sophia for
prayers and told him that "millions of Pakistanis watched it live on
television", according to a tweet by the Prime Minister's Office.
During their
conversation, Prime Minister Imran recalled Erdogan’s visit to Pakistan for the
sixth session of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council (HLSCC) in
February and reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to "further fortify
bilateral cooperation" in all areas.
"Pakistan
deeply appreciates Turkey’s steadfast support for the just cause of Kashmir,
which President Erdogan reaffirmed during his address to the joint session of
parliament in February 2020," the PM Office said.
Erdogan's
contact with the Pakistani leadership comes days before the world marks one
year since India revoked the semi-autonomous status of occupied Kashmir and
split it into two federal territories, causing further determination in New
Delhi's ties with Islamabad.
Earlier this
week, the government called for observing the first anniversary of occupied
Kashmir's annexation on August 5 as Yaum-i-Istehsal (Day of Exploitation) with
full enthusiasm as it rolled out a range of activities planned for the
occasion.
PM, Erdogan
discuss Covid-19 fight
Prime Minister
Imran during the phone call also appreciated Turkey for its role in the fight
against Covid-19 and for extending support to a number of countries, including
Pakistan.
The premier
briefed Erdogan on his government’s strategy to contain the spread of the virus
in Pakistan and the particular focus on "saving lives, securing
livelihoods, and stimulating the economy", according to a PM Office tweet.
The two leaders
also discussed the need for Pakistan and Turkey to jointly work for medicine
development.
"The
Pakistan-Turkey strategic relationship is underpinned by unique mutual trust,
understanding and close cooperation," the premier's office noted.
It said that
Prime Minister Imran and President Erdogan resolved to "stay in close
contact on all issues of common interest".
https://www.dawn.com/news/1572341/erdogan-assures-pakistan-of-support-on-kashmir-in-calls-to-president-alvi-pm-imran
--------
North America
US sanctions
Chinese paramilitary unit over Uighurs
Michael Gabriel
Hernandez
31.07.2020
WASHINGTON
The US on Friday
blacklisted a current and a former Chinese government official, and a
paramilitary organization accused of being instrumental in Beijing's crackdown
on Turkic-Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang.
The designations
include the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC), Sun Jinlong, a
former XPCC operative, and Peng Jiarui, a Chinese government official and XPCC
commander, according to the Treasury Department.
“As previously
stated, the United States is committed to using the full breadth of its
financial powers to hold human rights abusers accountable in Xinjiang and
across the world,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
The XPCC is a
Chinese government paramilitary unit that operates in Xinjiang that
"enhances internal control over the region by advancing China’s vision of
economic development in XUAR that emphasizes subordination to central planning
and resource extraction," the Treasury said using an acronym that refers
to the northwestern autonomous region of Xinjiang.
The Xinjiang
region is home to around 10 million Uighurs. The Turkic Muslim group, which
makes up around 45% of Xinjiang’s population, has long accused China's
authorities of cultural, religious and economic discrimination.
Up to 1 million
people, or about 7% of the Muslim population in Xinjiang, have been
incarcerated in an expanding network of "political re-education"
camps, according to US officials and UN experts.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-sanctions-chinese-paramilitary-unit-over-uighurs/1928493
--------
Sudan welcomes
Mike Pompeo’s remarks on terror designation
August 2, 2020
Khartoum has
welcomed remarks last week by the US Secretary of State that it should be
removed from a list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Mike Pompeo had
previously said the State Department hoped to remove the designation, which
severely impedes investment in Sudan, but disputes arose over a compensation
package for victims of the bombings of two US embassies.
On Thursday,
however, he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the country’s
transition towards civilian rule was an opportunity for change.
Sudan’s
state-run news agency, Suna, reported on Saturday that Khartoum’s transitional
Cabinet had affirmed its readiness to work with the US on the delisting.
Mr Pompeo told
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that legislation on a settlement should
come before Congress “in the very, very near term”.
“I think lifting
the state sponsor of terrorism designation there if we can ... take care of the
victims of those tragedies would be a good thing for American foreign policy,”
Mr Pompeo said.
He said the fall
of long-time dictator Omar Al Bashir in April 2019 and the subsequent
government of civilian prime minister Abdalla Hamdok, in place since last
August, was “an opportunity that doesn’t come along often”.
“There’s a
chance not only for a democracy to begin to be built out, but perhaps regional
opportunities that could flow from that as well,” he said.
Al Bashir
welcomed Al Qaeda head Osama bin Laden to Sudan and the country was accused of
helping militants who blew up the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998,
killing 224 people and injuring about 5,000 others.
Sudan’s new
government has agreed to provide compensation but a dispute has arisen over a
decision to award higher payments to Americans than to Africans, who comprised
most of the casualties.
Senator Chris
Coons, a Democrat known for his interest in Africa, urged Mr Pompeo to “do
everything you can” to support Mr Hamdok and seize the chance “to build a new
democratic partner in the region”.
https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/sudan-welcomes-mike-pompeo-s-remarks-on-terror-designation-1.1057766
--------
Europe
Emails implicate
elite British SAS in Afghan massacres
August 2, 2020
British special
forces must “uphold the same standards” as other soldiers in wartime, a senior
defence figure said after accusations that a rogue unit killed Afghan
civilians.
The Special Air
Service Regiment has come under the spotlight after emails were released
suggesting its troops were involved in the deaths of 33 Afghan people in 11
night raids on homes in 2011.
The Ministry of
Defence said it had thoroughly investigated the claims and found no evidence to
prosecute any soldiers.
But the level of
detail in the emails has raised concerns over the conduct of the troops in
Helmand province during the conflict.
Tobias Ellwood,
chairman of the Defence Select Committee, told The National that any new
evidence should be pursued by investigators.
“The British
Armed Forces have one of the most highly respected reputations in the world
because of their standards and values on the battlefield," Mr Ellwood
said.
"If
evidence comes to light that we have fallen beneath those standards, then it’s
imperative that the military police reopen the investigation.”
Afghan war in
pictures
The issue is
expected to be discussed by Ben Wallace, the British Defence Secretary, and
senior officials this week after the High Court ordered the release of the
secret emails in a case brought by human rights law firm Leigh Day.
Documents seen
by The Sunday Times newspaper reveal one incident in which it was alleged that
a British soldier killed four people in Helmand on February 16, 2011.
SAS soldiers
arrived by helicopter at night in a village called Gawahargin, in southern
Helmand province, looking for a suspect behind a bombing.
Women and
children were rounded up and the troops went into a family home where gunshots
were heard.
A teenager named
Saifullah went back into the house and found his father, brothers and cousin
with bullet holes in their heads.
The allegation
was passed on to the special investigation branch of the Royal Military Police,
who believed the claims were serious enough to launch an investigation in 2014.
They found
emails between special forces personnel, which have now been released by the
court.
In one document,
an SAS sergeant-major said in an email: “Is this about … latest massacre? I’ve
heard a couple of rumours.”
In response, a
SAS soldier wrote that the men appeared with either AK-47 weapons or hand
grenades and were shot.
In one note
written on the day of the killings, a British officer said he had had a “very
difficult” meeting with an Afghan colonel.
One of his
soldiers was a relative of Saifullah and said the dead men were teachers and
farmers, not Taliban supporters.
The colonel said
his men reported that nobody had fired at the coalition forces but the
civilians “were shot anyway”.
“He suggests
that two men were shot trying to run away, and that the other 2 men were
'assassinated' on target after they had already been detained and searched,” he
said.
Concerns were
also raised after 33 other deaths of which 10 were near-identical, where a
captured male family member who was in his empty home to clear the way for a search,
picked up a weapon and attacked the soldiers in “clearly impossible odds”.
The Ministry of
Defence said the case had been independently investigated and subjected to four
reviews.
“This is not new
evidence," it said. "These documents were considered as part of the
independent investigations, which concluded there was insufficient evidence to
refer the case for prosecution.
"The
Service Police and the Service Prosecuting Authority, of course, remain open to
considering allegations should new evidence, intelligence or information come
to light."
https://www.thenational.ae/world/asia/emails-implicate-elite-british-sas-in-afghan-massacres-1.1057968
--------
Muslim British
lord receives apology for extremism slur
July 30, 2020
A prominent
British Muslim politician has received a public apology and substantial damages
after a news website accused him of “rubbing shoulders” with extremists.
Mohamed Sheikh,
who represents the ruling Conservative Party in the UK parliament’s upper
house, the House of Lords, said that he had been deeply distressed by an August
2018 article as he had been involved for years in building interfaith
understanding.
The article,
published by MailOnline, cited his attendance at a conference in Tunisia in
2014 organised by the Centre for Strategic Studies for North Africa and
attended by the foreign representative of Hamas, Osama Hamdan.
One of the
meeting’s key objectives was to reconcile differences between Hamas and Fatah.
It was also attended by former British opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, ex-US
attorney general Ramsey Clark and Tunisia’s political leadership.
Mr Sheikh spoke
at the conference and called for lasting peace and a two-state solution with
security for Israel and respect for the rights of the Palestinian people, in
line with UK government policy.
But the
gathering gained notoriety after Mr Corbyn later attended a wreath-laying
ceremony at a cemetery that had memorials for those accused of having links to
a terrorist attack at the 1972 Olympic Games.
Mr Corbyn said
he was there to honour innocent victims of a 1985 Israeli airstrike. Mr Sheikh,
a member of the upper house of parliament since 2006, said he had not visited
the cemetery and had been unaware of the event until four years later.
Mr Sheikh said
that his reputation had been fully vindicated. “I am not going to be deterred
by what happened,” he said.
https://www.thenational.ae/world/europe/muslim-british-lord-receives-apology-for-extremism-slur-1.1056853
--------
Arab world
Lebanon
dismantles Israeli spying device
02 August 2020
Lebanon has
dismantled an Israeli spying device in
South Province near the border with the occupied territories.
Lebanon’s
Arabic-language al-Mayadeen television news network reported on Sunday that the
device had been discovered on the outskirts of the town of Kfar Houneh, which
lies in Jezzine district.
The small-sized
device was equipped with a GPS equipment as well as a high-precision sensor to
measure humidity and temperature.
On Saturday, the
Israeli military flew a reconnaissance balloon over southern Lebanon.
Lebanon’s
official National News Agency reported that the device was sent over the small
southern village of Hula. It flew for a quarter.
Back on July 26,
Israel said one of its drones had come down in Lebanese territory.
Israel’s Channel
12 reported at the time that the drone crashed after it experienced a technical
failure.
Also on Sunday,
Lebanese Defense Minister Zeina Akar said Lebanon reserves the right to resist
Israeli occupation and the Lebanese Army is ready to respond to any act of
aggression.
Akar, in remarks
published by the London-based Arabic-language al-Quds al-Arabi daily newspaper,
condemned Israeli forces over firing dozens of shells into and around the
occupied Shebaa Farms on July 27.
She added that
the attack on Lebanon’s sovereignty was dangerous “especially as the [UN]
Security Council will soon discuss renewing the tasks of UNIFIL (the United
Nations Interim Force in Lebanon).”
The army, she
said, is “highly prepared and fully ready to defend Lebanon and its security
and stability, and [that] this has been proved more than once.”
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/08/02/630934/Israeli-spying-device-Lebanon
--------
Syria says US
oil firm signed deal with Kurdish-led SDF
02 August 2020
Syria’s foreign
ministry said on Sunday that an American oil company had signed an agreement
with Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who control northeastern
oilfields in what it described as an illegal deal aimed at “stealing” Syria’s
crude.
A ministry
statement, published on state media, did not name the firm involved in the deal
with SDF, an alliance that seized swathes of north and east Syria from ISIS
with US help.
There was no
immediate response from SDF officials to a Reuters’ request for comment. There
was no immediate comment from US officials on Sunday.
For all the
latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
A US senator and
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had referred to an oil fields deal between the
SDF and a US firm during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on
Thursday.
Republican
Senator Lindsey Graham said during the committee hearing that SDF General
Commander Mazloum Abdi informed him that a deal had been signed with an
American company to “modernize the oil fields in northeastern Syria,” and asked
Pompeo whether the administration was supportive of it.
“We are,” Pompeo
responded during the hearing streamed live by PBS. “The deal took a little
longer ... than we had hoped, and now we’re in implementation.”
Damascus
“condemns in the strongest terms the agreement signed between al-Qasd militia
(SDF) and an American oil company to steal Syria’s oil under the sponsorship
and support of the American administration,” the Syrian statement said. “This
agreement is null and void and has no legal basis.”
Syria produced
around 380,000 barrels of oil per day before civil war erupted following a
crackdown on protests in 2011, with Iran and Russia backing President Bashar
al-Assad’s government and the United States supporting the opposition.
Damascus lost
control of most oil producing fields in a stretch east of the Euphrates River
in Deir al-Zor. Western sanctions have also hit the energy industry.
US President
Donald Trump has said that despite a military pullback from northeast Syria, a
small number of American forces would remain “where they have oil”. The
Pentagon said late last year that oilfield revenues would go to the SDF.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/business/energy/2020/08/02/Syria-says-US-oil-firm-signed-deal-with-Kurdish-led-SDF.html
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Amid tensions in
Libya, Turkey’s hostile statements about UAE a provocation: Bahrain
02 August 2020
Bahrain
denounced Turkey's defense minister’s statements about the UAE and described it
as “hostile” and an “unacceptable provocation,” the Bahraini Ministry of
Foreign Affairs said on Sunday.
“Bahrain
denounces the hostile statements of the Turkish Defense Minister, Hulusi Akar,
regarding the United Arab Emirates, considering it an unacceptable provocation
that contradicts diplomatic norms, and a reprehensible threat to a brotherly
Arab country that is known for its constructive role in the international
community,” the ministry said in a statement.
UAE Minister of
State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, had called Turkey to “stop
intervening in Arab affairs” on Saturday.
“The provocative
statement of the Turkish Minister of Defense is a new low for his country's
diplomacy. The Sublime Porte and colonialist illusions belong to the archives
of history. Relations are not conducted with threats and intrusions, and there
is no place for colonial illusions at this time. It is more appropriate for
Turkey to stop interfering in Arab affairs,” Gargash said in his tweet.
The UAE
minister’s statement came a day after Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar
claimed that the UAE was committing “malicious acts” in Libya and Syria, in
statements carried by Turkish and Qatari media outlets.
The UAE, along
with other Arab allies, have condemned Turkey’s interference in the Libyan conflict.
Libya has
plunged into chaos since the 2011 toppling of dictator Moammar Gaddafi.
Clashes between
the two main warring parties in the country, the Libyan National Army (LNA),
commanded by Khalifa Haftar and the Government of National Accord (GNA), led by
Fayez al-Serraj, have intensified recently.
Many foreign
powers have backed different sides of the conflict with varying degrees of
support, with the most prominent countries being Turkey backing the GNA and
Egypt backing the LNA.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2020/08/02/Amid-tensions-in-Libya-Turkey-s-hostile-statements-about-UAE-a-provocation-Bahrain.html
--------
Lebanon's FM
Hitti submits resignation over government performance: Local media
03 August 2020
Lebanese Foreign
Minister Nassif Hitti has submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Hassan
Diab on Monday over “the government's performance on a number of issues,” local
media MTV reported. Hitti is set to issue a statement shortly.
Hitti decided to
quit over differences with the prime minister and frustration at being
sidelined, a ministry official and sources close to him said earlier.
The current
foreign minister was appointed foreign minister in Prime Minister Hassan Diab's
cabinet that came to power in the wake of nationwide popular protests that
broke out in October that called for greater government accountability and an
end to corruption.
For all the
latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
The country is
currently in the midst of its worst economic crisis since the end of the
15-year civil war that ended in 1990. After defaulting on its $1.2 eurobond
debt in March, the government entered talks with the International Monetary
Fund to restructure its $90 billion debt, seeking $10 billion from the fund in
financial assistance. However, talks snagged in early June as a dispute broke
out between the central bank and the government over the actual size of state
losses.
Two members of
the IMF negotiating team have already resigned, including the now former
director general of Lebanon's Finance Ministry, Alain Bifani.
For years, the
government has tried to attract foreign financial assistance to aid its
crippled economy, but where aid was dependent on reforms, successive
governments have failed to implement key reforms across various sectors to
attract aid.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/08/03/Lebanon-s-Foreign-Minister-Hitti-to-resign-today-over-government-performance.html
--------
Coronavirus:
Egypt detects lowest figure of new COVID-19 cases since May
01 August 2020
Egypt reported
321 new COVID-19 infections on Friday, the health ministry said, the lowest
figure since May 3.
For more
coronavirus news, visit our dedicated page.
In total, 94,078
COVID-19 cases have been reported in Egypt, of which 39,638 have recovered and
4,188 have died, including 31 on Friday, the ministry said in a statement late
on Friday.
Egypt reopened
resorts to foreign tourists on July 1 after tourism came to a halt in March
under measures to curb the coronavirus outbreak.
But Egypt has
not yet made it to a “safe list” of countries for resumption of non-essential
travel to the European Union.
Tourism accounts
for 5 percent of Egypt’s economic output, according to the government. The
figure rises to as much as 15 percent if jobs indirectly related to the sector
are included, analysts say.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/coronavirus/2020/08/01/Coronavirus-Egypt-detects-lowest-figure-of-new-COVID-19-cases-since-May.html
--------
American drone
operated by Saudi-led coalition shot down by Yemen’s army
02 August 2020
An American
drone operated by the Saudi-led coalition has been shot down by Yemen’s army
over the northern province of Hajjah.
The spokesman
for Yemeni Armed Forces, Brigadier General Yahya Saree, said on Sunday
afternoon that air defense forces had targeted the AeroVironment RQ-20 Puma
drone with a proper missile as it was hovering over the Harad district close to
the border with Saudi Arabia’s Jizan region.
The American
aircraft is a small and hand-launched unmanned aerial vehicle. It can be
equipped with an electro-optical infrared camera and is primarily used for
surveillance and intelligence gathering purposes.
Later in the
day, Saudi-led military aircraft launched four airstrikes against several areas
in Ajasher desert in Yemen’s northern province of Jawf.
The warplanes
also pounded Emarat area in the Kitaf wa al-Boqe’e district of the northwestern
mountainous province of Sa’ada on three occasions.
No casualties
have been reported.
Elsewhere,
dozens of militiamen loyal to Yemen’s former President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi
and patronized by Riyadh were killed or injured in a counteroffensive by Yemeni
allies in Najran, southwestern Saudi Arabia.
A Yemeni
military source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said mercenaries fighting
for Saudi Arabia mounted a multi-pronged attack in Sawh area of the region but
were confronted by Yemeni troops in hours-long fierce battles.
In March 2015,
Saudi Arabia embarked on a bloody campaign against Yemen with the declared aim
of putting Hadi back into the seat of power, and eliminate the Houthi
Ansarullah movement.
Riyadh has not
been alone in the campaign. It has been flanked by regional allies and enjoys
arms supplies from its Western backers.
Over 100,000
people have been killed. That is according to some semi-official figures.
The Saudi regime
has failed to fulfill the objective of its deadly campaign.
The war has also
destroyed and shut down Yemen’s infrastructure. The Yemeni population has been
subjected to large-scale hunger and diseases aggravated by the naval blockade
imposed on the country by the coalition of aggressors.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/08/02/630925/Yemen-drone-Hajjah
--------
Mideast
Iran Strongly
Blasts US for Sheltering Terrorists
Aug 01, 2020
Iran announced
on Saturday that it has captured the ringleader of a US-based Tondar (Thunder)
terrorist group, Jamshid Sharmahd.
Iranian Foreign
Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi praised the security forces for
arresting Sharmahd, and lashed out at the US for supporting and sheltering
notorious terrorists who have claimed responsibility for several terrorist
operations on Iranian territories while their hands are stained with the blood
of innocent Iranian people.
He strongly
protested at the US administration for sheltering and nourishing terrorist
groups, and said, “The (US) regime should account for supporting the terrorist
grouplet (Tondar) and other grouplets and criminals who guide the sabotage,
armed and terrorist operations against the Iranian people from inside the US
and shed the blood of the Iranian citizens.”
Sharmahd, who
guided the armed and sabotage acts against Iran from the US, was arrested in
complicated operations by the Iranian security forces and is now in the hands
of the country’s intelligence ministry, a statement by the ministry said.
Tondar, or the
Kingdom Assembly of Iran, also known as Soldiers of the Kingdom Assembly of
Iran, is an armed terrorist royalist group seeking to overthrow the ruling
government and restore the monarchy in Iran.
Tondar claimed
responsiblity for the 2008 Shiraz explosion at the Hosseynieh Seyed al-Shohada
in which 14 people, including children, were killed and 215 others were injured.
Mohammad-Reza
Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour, accused of being members of the terrorist
group, were arrested and tried for the bombing. In January 2010, they were
executed for waging war against God and attempting to overthrow the Islamic
Republic.
Tondar had also
plotted for several other terrorist acts in Iran in recent years, including
blowing up Sivand dam in Shiraz, detonating cyanide bombs at Tehran book
exhibition and explosion of bombs during general ceremonies at late Imam
Khomeini’s shrine. All these terrorist plots were foiled by the Iranian
security forces.
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990511000909
--------
Israeli court
orders Netanyahu’s son to stop ‘harassing’ protest leaders
02 August 2020
An Israeli court
has ordered the son of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop “harassing”
leaders of unprecedented protest rallies against his father, ordering him to
delete a tweet doxing the protest leaders.
On Sunday, the
Jerusalem al-Quds Magistrate's Court ordered Yair Netanyahu, who has caused
controversy for past social media posts, to remove a tweet, in which he
disclosed personal details of the leaders of the protest movement against his
father.
In his
controversial tweet on Friday, Yair, who is known to be a bombastic defender of
his father, encouraged his 88,000-plus social media followers to picket the
activists’ homes day and night.
Judge Dorit
Feinstein ordered the younger Netanyahu to “refrain from harassing" the
individuals concerned “in any form” for the next six months, Hebrew-language
media reported.
Yair Netanyahu
“was indifferent to that possibility when he saw some of his followers calling
for violent acts, didn’t condemn that and didn’t remove the tweet when he saw
it was drawing worrying comments,” the judge added.
Yair Netanyahu
also created controversy in 2018 when he was recorded seemingly drunk outside a
strip club talking about a natural gas agreement inked by the Israeli regime.
Sunday’s court
ruling came a day after Israeli media described as the anti-Netanyahu protests
as the largest in a decade, estimating that some 10,000 people participated in
the rally over the premier’s corruption.
Netanyahu, the
first serving Israeli prime minister to go on trial, was indicted last November
in at least three corruption cases of bribery, fraud and breach of trust. He is
accused of receiving extravagant gifts from his billionaire friends, and granting
media tycoons some regulatory favors in return for more agreeable coverage of
himself and his family.
On Sunday,
Netanyahu, speaking before a weekly cabinet meeting, denounced the media for
what he described as “fueling” rather than covering “violent demonstrations.”
The right-wing
premier also accused the media for purportedly giving unwavering support for
“left-wing demonstrators.”
In the past
recent weeks, thousands of anti-Netanyahu demonstrators, mainly in Tel Aviv and
Jerusalem al-Quds, have also rallied against the premier's mishandling of the
COVID-19 crisis, calling for his resignation.
Israel is
currently witnessing record levels of the coronavirus infections and fatalities
amid deepening unemployment rate of more than 20 percent.
It has confirmed
72,218 infection cases and a death toll of 526 so far. Many believe Israel
reopened its economy too quickly, leading to a surge in infection cases.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/08/02/630944/Palestine-Israel-Yair-Netanyahu-court-harassing-protests-coronavirus-corruption
--------
Iran’s Speaker:
Tehran Ready to Increase Parliamentary Cooperation with Moscow
Aug 02, 2020
In a meeting on
Saturday with Chairman of the Russian Committee on International Affairs Leonid
Slutsky, Qalibaf voiced Iranian parliament’s readiness to accelerate joint
cooperation with Russia in different fields including politics, trade, economy
and culture.
Referring to the
meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Supreme Leader of the
Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei as a turning point, he
emphasized developing all-out cooperation between the two countries.
Qalibaf lauded
Iran-Russia cooperation in fighting terrorism in Syria, saying security
cooperation can serve as a model for boosting joint cooperation in other
fields.
Slutsky, for his
part, said that by maintaining cooperation among Iranian and Russian expert
parliamentary committees, "we can hold joint meeting on political, energy
and economic fields".
Both parliaments
can help plan national projects and strategic cooperation, he added.
He stressed
promotion of Iran-Russia cooperation in the Caspian Sea.
In relevant
remarks in June, Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf and Russian
Ambassador to Iran Levan Dzhagaryan in a meeting in Tehran underlined the need
to expand mutual cooperation in different fields, specially the trade and
business relations.
During the
meeting in the Iranian capital on Monday, June 22, Qalibaf and Dzhagaryan
explored avenues for bolstering and reinvigorating bilateral fields in economic
and trade areas.
During the
meeting, Qalibaf appreciated Russia for its principled stance in the Board of
Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
"The claims
made in IAEA resolution are not legal and Russia had firm stance in this
regard," he said.
The Iranian
parliament speaker said undoubtedly parliamentary cooperation between the
Russian State Duma and the Iranian Parliament will continue with more speed and
precision.
Elsewhere in his
remarks, Qalibaf referred to the importance of focusing on the situation in
Syria, and said solving the Syrian issue has merely a political solution and
holding a virtual or in person trilateral meeting by Iran, Russia and Turkey
will be effective.
He underlined
the importance of holding future joint commission meetings of the Iranian
Parliament and State Duma and following up on the economic issues.
Dzhagaryan, for
his part, congratulated Qalibaf on his election as new parliament speaker.
He added that
the Iranian and Russian parliaments play a major role in developing bilateral
ties.
Dzhagaryan noted
that claims in the IAEA Board of Governors are illegal, saying Russia and China
will continue supporting Iran.
Tehran and
Moscow have in recent years made efforts to further increase their economic and
trade cooperation to confront the US sanctions against both nations.
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990512000365
--------
Tehran
Determined to Promote Ties with Kabul
Aug 02, 2020
Rouhani made the
remarks during a phone call with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani late on
Saturday.
Iran’s president
underlined the need for further expansion of ties with Afghanistan by using of
economic, trade and transit capacities of both nations, noting that what is
important for Iran is sustainable peace and calm in the war-torn Central Asian
country.
He stressed that
peace in Afghanistan is tantamount to peace and stability in the entire region.
If the situation
caused by coronavirus subsides, we will be able to register the operation of
the Khaf-Herat railway, and also sign a comprehensive cooperation document
between the two countries, Rouhani stated.
Ghani, for his
part, appreciated Iran's supports for the Afghan nation and government, saying
that Iran has provided Afghan migrants with proper health and medical services
to protect them against coronavirus.
Noting that the
Afghan and Iranian private sectors well know the way of bilateral interaction,
he continued, "Chabahar port is booming at a good pace and I hope the
economic relations between the two countries would further improve by using
this capacity."
In relevant
remarks on June 1, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in a phone conversation
with his Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani stressed his country's readiness to
further strengthen relations and cooperation with Kabul.
Rouhani
congratulated Ghani on his new term in office, and expressed satisfaction with
the agreement reached between the political groups in the country.
He expressed the
hope that with the efforts of all elements of the government and the High
Council for National Reconciliation greater peace, stability and security would
be achieved in Afghanistan.
Referring to the
measures and successes of Iran in the fight against coronavirus and providing
free medical and health services to Afghan immigrants, Rouhani said, “Health
services to the Afghan brothers in the fight against coronavirus will be
continued.”
He stated that
the policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran is to develop fraternal and friendly
relations and cooperation with all neighbors, specially Afghanistan, and noted,
"We consider the development of stability and security in Afghanistan in
line with our own stability and security and believe that disagreements among
groups can be resolved within the framework of principles and we are always by
the side of the Afghan government and people in doing so.”
"We must
work to accelerate the implementation of agreements and projects between us,
including the Khaf-Herat railway, as one of the most important economic projects
between the two countries,” said Iranian President, adding, “The bilateral
relations between Iran and Afghanistan are on the path to progress.”
"Completing
and launching the Chabahar-Zahedan railway project in the coming year can
create a positive transformation in the development of transportation of goods
in the region,” he noted.
During the
conversation, both sides stressed the need to work for the comprehensive
development and strengthening of Tehran-Kabul relations in order to ensure the interests
of both nations.
Ghani, for his
part, wished good health and success to the government and people of Iran in
fighting coronavirus, and praised the assistance and medical services provided
to Afghan refugees in Iran.
Referring to the
constructive role of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the stability and security
of the region, Ghani called on Iran to support the peace and dialogue process
in Afghanistan.
He also referred
to the developing relations between Iran and Afghanistan in various fields and
expressed hope that with the efforts of the officials of the two countries,
relations and cooperation between the two countries would develop.
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990512000227
--------
Israel’s PM
Netanyahu rails at media over protests against him
02 August 2020
Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday railed at swelling protests against his
rule, saying they were egged on by a biased media that distorts facts and
cheers on the demonstrators.
Netanyahu has
faced a wave of protests in recent weeks, with demonstrators calling for the
resignation of the long-serving leader, who is on trial for corruption charges.
They’ve also panned his handling of the coronavirus crisis. Netanyahu has
painted the protests as dens of “anarchists” and “leftists” out to topple “a
strong right-wing leader.”
The protests
have largely been peaceful. In some cases they have ended with clashes between
demonstrators and police. In others, small gangs of Netanyahu supporters and
individuals affiliated with far-right groups have assaulted demonstrators.
For all the
latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
In a six-minute
rant at a meeting of his Cabinet, Netanyahu slammed the media for “inflaming”
the protests and for misrepresenting incidents of violence against the
protesters.
“There has never
been such a distorted mobilization — I wanted to say Soviet but it has already
reached North Korean terms — of the media in favor of the protests,” he said.
Netanyahu said
the media ignored “wild and unfettered incitement, including daily calls —
including the day before yesterday — to murder the prime minister and his
family.”
He said the
protests were breeding grounds for the coronavirus that were being allowed to
take place with no limits, shutting down streets and neighborhoods. He said
right-wing protests have not been given such free rein.
He condemned
violence “from all sides” at the start of his remarks before tearing into the
media he has long viewed as hostile toward him.
Gantz: Protests
must be allowed to take place
Also at the
Cabinet meeting, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who is the country’s
“alternate” prime minister under a power-sharing deal, said the protests must
be allowed to take place with demonstrators shielded from violence.
“The right to
protest is the lifeblood of democracy and violence is the erosion of the
foundation of democracy,” he said.
Netanyahu’s
tirade came as a Jerusalem court ruled that his son Yair Netanyahu must remove
a tweet that published the names, addresses and phone numbers of prominent
protesters and called for his followers to demonstrate outside their homes “day
and night.”
Protesters said
they received threatening calls after the tweet. The court also decided he must
“refrain from harassing” the protesters for six months.
“Turns out that
in our ‘democracy’ you aren’t allowed to protest outside the homes of
anarchists who have called for the prime minister’s murder,” tweeted Yair
Netanyahu after the ruling. The 28-year-old has emerged as a driving force in a
counterattack against his father’s critics.
Throughout the
summer, thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets, calling for Netanyahu
to resign, protesting his handling of the country’s coronavirus crisis and
saying he should not remain in office while on trial. Though Netanyahu has
tried to play down the protests, the twice-a-week gatherings show no signs of
slowing, and Saturday night’s Jerusalem gathering drew more than 10,000 people.
The rallies
against Netanyahu are the largest Israel has seen since 2011 protests over the
country’s high cost of living.
After moving
quickly to contain the virus last spring, many believe Israel reopened its
economy too quickly, leading to a surge in cases. The country is now coping
with record levels of coronavirus, while unemployment has surged to over 20
percent.
Netanyahu faces
charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in a series of scandals
involving wealthy associates and media moguls. He denies wrongdoing.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/08/02/Israel-s-PM-Netanyahu-rails-at-media-over-protests-against-him.html
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Taliban
supporters celebrate Eid al-Adha in Tehran, photos show
01 August 2020
A group of
Taliban supporters carrying flags of the group were seen celebrating the Muslim
holiday of Eid al-Adha in the Iranian capital Tehran on Friday, according to
images shared on social media.
A Facebook post
shared by Aref Ahmadi, an Afghan immigrant in Tehran, showed a group of men
dressed in Afghan clothing carrying two flags of the Taliban.
For all the
latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
Ahmadi said he
spotted the men in the Mellat Park in northern Tehran on Friday.
“The three-day
Eid ceasefire has also had a positive effect on the Taliban in Tehran, who roam
freely carrying their flag and enjoy peace and tranquillity,” Ahmadi wrote on
Facebook, referring to the three-day ceasefire the Taliban said it will observe
for Eid al-Adha starting Friday.
The images have
shocked Iranians on social media.
“[Qassem]
Soleimani went to fight in Syria so that ISIS would not come to Tehran and
instead we would have the Taliban in Tehran’s parks,” one user tweeted
sarcastically in reference to Iranian claims that Tehran intervened in Syria in
order to prevent extremist groups from reaching Iran.
Some Afghan and
US officials have accused Iran of supporting the Taliban.
An Afghan police
official said in February that Iran had supplied the Taliban with anti-aircraft
missiles.
In January, US
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Iran of using militant groups such as
the Taliban to undermine Afghanistan peace efforts.
The Taliban had
condemned the US killing of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Qassem
Soleimani in January, describing him as a “great warrior” in a statement.
Around 2.5
million Afghans live in Iran, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).
Afghans in Iran,
the majority of whom come to the Islamic Republic in search of work, face abuse
and discrimination from both the authorities and the public.
Iranian border
guards allegedly tortured and killed dozens of Afghan refugees by forcing them
into a river in early May, sparking anger among Afghans. Iran denied the
accusation.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/08/01/Taliban-supporters-celebrate-Eid-al-Adha-in-Tehran-photos-show.html
--------
Israeli
warplanes launch fresh air raids in Gaza Strip
03 August 2020
Israel warplanes
have launched new airstrikes against the positions of the Palestinian
resistance movement of Hamas in the central parts of the besieged Gaza strip.
The attacks have
targeted west of Deir al-Balah city, a report by RT Arabic said.
A military base
belonging to Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, has
also been hit by three rockets fired from the Israeli warplanes, Israeli media
claim.
The sound of
several explosions has also been heard from east of Khan Yunis in the south of
Gaza Strip, RT reported.
The attacks came
shortly after the Israeli military claimed its iron dome air defense system has
intercepted a rocket fired from the besieged enclave towards the occupied
territories.
The Tel Aviv
regime also claimed its forces have clashed with a four-member “terrorist
group” laying mines in the occupied territories’ borders with Syria in early
hours of Monday.
During the
clashes, it said, the Israeli military’s combat helicopter has opened fire and
injured several members of the group.
The Israeli
military’s northern command center is on standby to counter any scenario, Al
Jazeera TV quoted sources in the regime as saying.
Gaza has been
under Israeli siege since June 2007, which has caused a decline in living
standards.
Israel has also
launched three major wars against the enclave since 2008, killing thousands of
Gazans each time and shattering the impoverished territory’s already poor
infrastructure.
The crippling
blockade has caused a decline in the standard of living as well as
unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty in the Gaza Strip.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/08/03/630964/Israel-gaza-hamas-position-attack
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US House passes
spending package valued at $500mn for Israel’s missile systems
02 August 2020
The US House of
Representatives has passed an aid package valued at hundreds of millions of
dollars and designated for assistance to the Israeli regime to develop its
surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems.
The lower house
of the US Congress made the decision on Friday and the funding will mostly be
allocated for Iron Dome, David's Sling as well as Arrow 3 missile systems,
Israeli English-language newspaper The Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday.
The
appropriations bill specified that “$500,000,000 shall be for the Israeli
Cooperative Programs...for the procurement of the Iron Dome … system to counter
short-range rocket threats...for the Short Range Ballistic Missile Defense
(SRBMD) program... for co-production activities of Arrow 3 Upper Tier systems
in the United States and in Israel.”
The report
asserted that the spending package is in accordance with the 2016 Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) between the United States and the Israeli regime worth $38
billion over a decade.
US military aid
to Israel has skyrocketed over the past several years, even as Israeli forces
are engaged in blatant human rights violations against Palestinians in the
besieged Gaza Strip and across the occupied West Bank.
Back in April,
The Jerusalem Post reported that the Pentagon had supplied 1 million surgical
masks to the Israeli regime in order to be distributed among soldiers, despite
the fact that it had earlier introduced
a measure requiring personnel to make their own masks to combat the spread of
the new coronavirus.
The report
revealed that the masks were procured from China, and a plane carrying the
medical stuff intended for Israeli soldiers landed in Ben Gurion Airport on
April 7.
The Jerusalem
Post had initially published the article headlined “US Department of Defense
gives 1 million masks to IDF for coronavirus use.”
The newspaper,
however, changed the headline shortly afterwards to read, “Israel brings 1
million masks from China for IDF soldiers,” in a possible attempt at
downplaying the role of Washington in spite of shortages in protective
equipment, including face masks, in the United States.
Former US Senate
candidate, Mark Dankof, told Press TV last August that Washington’s diplomatic,
financial and military support for Israel had been detrimental to the US
economy and its international reputation, calling on US authorities to
immediately discontinue all forms of assistance to the regime.
“The United
States is going to have a $40 trillion debt by the end of the decade,” partly
due to US economic aid to Israel, “But this is just the tip of the iceberg on
this thing,” Dankof commented.
“The United
States ought to pull the plug on Israel right now, pull every cent and foreign
aid, pull our diplomatic support and military support for Israel and move in a
direction that enables us to regain our standing in the world, a more solid
economy and the good-will of many, many people in the Middle East that we have
totally alienated by supporting a criminal regime,” he pointed out.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/08/02/630910/US-House-passes-spending-package-valued-at--500m-for-Israel-missile-systems
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Africa
Sudan welcomes
Mike Pompeo comments on ending terror listing
02 August 2020
Sudan’s
government has welcomed remarks from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo this
week that he would like to delist Sudan as a state sponsor of terrorism, local
media reported.
Pompeo has
repeatedly indicated that the State Department hopes to remove the designation,
which severely impedes investment to Sudan, but disputes have arisen on a
compensation package over the 1998 bombings of two US embassies.
The US top
diplomat told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Thursday that
legislation on a settlement should come before Congress “in the very, very near
term.”
For all the
latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
According to an
English-language report by official news agency SUNA, the Sudanese transitional
government on Saturday welcomed Pompeo’s statement and “promised to do its
level best to meet the requirements that would help the (American) administration”
take “positive action.”
Independent
online news site Sudan Tribune reported the government had said in a statement
that it “is ready to continue working with the US administration to remove
Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and enter into a partnership
relationship that benefits both countries.”
Pompeo said that
the fall of longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir following mass protests and the
nearly year-old government of a civilian prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, marked
“an opportunity that doesn’t come along often.”
“There’s a
chance not only for a democracy to begin to be built out, but perhaps regional
opportunities that could flow from that as well,” he said.
“I think lifting
the state sponsor of terrorism designation there if we can... take care of the
victims of those tragedies would be a good thing for American foreign policy,”
Pompeo said.
According to
SUNA, Hamdok reaffirmed “his commitment to continue exerting efforts with all
friends in the United States and abroad” to bring the issue to a close and for
Sudan to fully return to “be part of the international community.”
Al-Bashir had
welcomed al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and Sudan was accused of aiding
extremists who blew up the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people
and injuring around 5,000 others.
Sudan’s new
government has agreed to a compensation package but a dispute has arisen over
higher payments to Americans than to Africans, who accounted for the vast
majority of the casualties.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/08/02/Sudan-welcomes-Mike-Pompeo-comments-on-ending-terror-listing-.html
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Tunisia’s
embattled Islamist parliament speaker narrowly survives confidence vote
31 July 2020
Tunisia’s
parliament speaker narrowly survived a confidence vote on Thursday, but his
slim margin of victory may only deepen the country’s political divisions after
the resignation of the prime minister.
Some 97 members
of parliament voted against Rached Ghannouchi, veteran leader of the Islamist
Ennahda party, falling short of the 109 needed to oust him.
However, with
Ennahda and the conservative Karama party boycotting the vote to show their
opposition to the motion, only 16 MPs gave him formal support.
For all the
latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
Ghannouchi’s
narrow margin of victory may indicate that Ennahda will now face fiercer
opposition in parliament from parties that voted against him, potentially
complicating efforts to agree on a new government.
The vote comes
two weeks after Tunisia’s government collapsed less than five months into its
term following corruption allegations against the prime minister, which he
denied.
Both the
confidence vote in Ghannouchi and the collapse of the short-lived government
stem from an election last year that produced a deeply fragmented parliament in
which Ennahda, as the biggest party, won only a quarter of the seats.
President Kais
Saied, a political independent who won a separate election in a landslide last
year, has nominated a new candidate for prime minister who must now propose a
government that can win majority support in the divided parliament.
The political
crisis has come at a difficult moment for Tunisia, where the global pandemic
has crashed the economy just as the government was seeking to agree on reforms
aimed at reducing public debt while boosting growth and creating jobs.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/north-africa/2020/07/31/Tunisia-s-embattled-Islamist-parliament-speaker-narrowly-survives-confidence-vote.html
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Turkey, UAE
clash over Libya conflict, trade accusations of interference
02 August 2020
A war of words
has escalated between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over Libya,
where the two states support opposing sides in the African country’s
long-running conflict.
The Emirati
minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, has slammed Turkish
defense minister for his recent comments about Abu Dhabi’s role in Libya,
urging Ankara to sop meddling in the affairs of Arab states.
“Relations are
not managed by threats and there is no place for colonialist delusions in this
day and age,” Gargash wrote on Twitter, referring to the collapse of the
Ottoman Empire.
Turkish Defense
Minister Hulusi had earlier censured “malicious” actions by the UAE in Libya,
where Abu Dhabi — along with Egypt, Russia and others – has been supporting
rebel forces led by renegade Khalifah Haftar in an offensive to seize power
from the internationally-recognized government in Tripoli.
“Abu Dhabi does
what it does in Libya, does what it does in Syria. All of it is being recorded.
At the right place and time, the accounts will be settled,” Akar said in an
interview with Qatar's Al Jazeera Arabic broadcaster.
“It is necessary
to ask Abu Dhabi, where this hostility, where these intentions, where this
jealousy comes from,” he added.
With crucial
help from Turkey, the Tripoli government has gained the upper hand in the
counter-offensive against the Hafter-led rebels after it reversed many of their
gains both around the capital and elsewhere in the country.
The Turkish
military has been providing air cover, weapons, and proxy militia from Syria to
help the Libyan government.
Egypt has, in
recent weeks, threatened to militarily intervene if Libyan government forces
act on a pledge to press to recapture the coastal city of Sirte, which fell to
Haftar’s rebels in January.
Libya has been
beset by chaos since the overthrow of ex-dictator Muammar Gaddafi on the back
of a NATO military intervention in 2011.
Since 2014, two
rival seats of power have emerged, namely the UN-recognized Libyan government,
headed by Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, in Tripoli, and another group, which
is based in the eastern city of Tobruk and supported militarily by Haftar-led
forces.
Libyans fear
future as warring sides vie for control: UN envoy
The Libyan
conflict has over the past years taken a heavy toll on the lives as well as the
economic state of civilians in the oil-rich country.
The acting
United Nations (UN) special envoy for Libya said on Saturday that the Libyan
people are concerned that external actors could strip them of the right to
decide their own future.
“The Libyan
people are exhausted and scared in equal measure,” Stephanie Williams said on a
visit to London. “They are tired of war, and want peace, but they fear this is
not in their hands now. They want a solution and a ceasefire. The alternative
to a ceasefire and an inclusive political solution is essentially the
destruction of their country.”
The UN envoy
went on to say, “With so many external actors with their own agendas, the risk
of miscalculation and a regional confrontation is high.”
Williams
emphasized that the conflict unfolding in Libya was to the detriment of
civilians and said, “This is as much a battle between external rivals, as a
civil war now, in which the Libyans are losing their sovereignty.”
The UN
secretary-general also warned last month that foreign interference in the
conflict in Libya had reached “unprecedented” levels.
“The [Libyan] conflict
has entered a new phase, with foreign interference reaching unprecedented
levels, including in the delivery of sophisticated equipment and the number of
mercenaries involved in the fighting,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said
in an address to a high-level virtual meeting of the UN Security Council.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/08/02/630909/Libya-conflict-Turkey-UAE-Arab-world-affairs
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Haftar warns
Erdogan: Stay out of Libya or you face our bullets
August 02, 2020
JEDDAH: Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was warned on Sunday to keep his forces out of
Libya or face an armed response.
The warning came
from Libya’s eastern military strongman Gen. Khalifa Haftar, who leads the
Libyan National Army (LNA) in the conflict with the Government of National
Accord (GNA) in Tripoli, headed by Fayez Al-Sarraj.
Erdogan has sent
Turkish-backed mercenaries from Syria to fight for the GNA, along with
artillery and heavy weapons that have turned the tide in its favor. In a speech
to troops to mark Eid Al-Adha, Haftar accused the Turkish president of “coming
to Libya in search of his ancestors’ legacy.”
He said: “We
tell him that we will translate the legacy of your ancestors with bullets.” For
any Turkish forces in Libya, there would be “no mercy because they do not
deserve mercy.”
Libyans would
never accept being occupied by Turks,
and would never again be colonized, Haftar said.
Samuel Ramani, a
researcher at the University of Oxford in the UK, told Arab News that Haftar
was escalating his rhetoric against Turkey.
“He is really
emphasising that his war in Libya is not just a struggle against extremism or
terrorist militias aligned with the GNA, but a struggle for Libya’s sovereignty
and independence from Turkey’s hegemonic agenda.”
Haftar’s warning
to Erdogan follows a verbal spat between Turkey's Defense Minister Hulusi Akar,
and Anwar Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of the UAE, which
supports Haftar.
“Abu Dhabi does
what it does in Libya, does what it does in Syria. All of it is being recorded.
At the right place and time, the accounts will be settled,” Akar said. "It
is necessary to ask Abu Dhabi, where this hostility, where these intentions,
where this jealousy comes from.”
Gargash
responded with a warning to Turkey to stop interfering in Arab affairs.
“Colonialist illusions belong to the archives of history,” Gargash said.
“Relations between states are not conducted with threats.”
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1713676/middle-east
--------
Cameroon: 18
civilians killed in Boko Haram attack
Fatma Esma
Arslan
02.08.2020
At least 18
civilians were killed in an attack attributed to the Boko Haram group, local
media reported on Sunday.
The attack took
place in the Nguetchewe village on Saturday night which also seriously injured
11 people in the region, according to local L'Oeil du Sahel newspaper.
Boko Haram
launched a bloody insurgency in 2009 in northeastern Nigeria but later spread
its atrocities to neighboring Niger, Chad and Cameroon, prompting a military
response.
More than 30,000
people have been killed and nearly 3 million displaced in a decade of Boko
Haram's terrorist activities in Nigeria, according to the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Violence
committed by Boko Haram has affected some 26 million people in the Lake Chad
region and displaced 2.6 million others, according to the UN Refugee Agency.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/cameroon-18-civilians-killed-in-boko-haram-attack/1929680
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Southeast Asia
Azmin meets with
Dr Mahathir at Putra Mosque just to wish him ‘Selamat Hari Raya’
02 Aug 2020
KULIM, Aug 2 —
Gombak MP Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali said he met former Prime Minister Tun Dr
Mahathir Mohamad at Putra Mosque in Putrajaya on Friday just to say hello and
wish him ‘Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha’.
Mohamed Azmin,
who is also Senior Minister cum Minister of International Trade and Industry,
said his action should not be politicised.
“Maybe we have
different views but when in the mosque during Aidiladha, of course, as a person
who is much younger than Tun Dr Mahathir, I have the responsibility to meet
with him to wish Selamat Hari Raya Aidiladha and say hello,” he said.
He said this
after attending Kedah-level Aidiladha sacrificial ceremony in Padang Serai near
here today.
Also present was
Housing and Local Government Minister Zuraida Kamaruddin. — Bernama
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/08/02/azmin-meets-with-dr-mahathir-at-putra-mosque-just-to-wish-him-selamat-hari/1890390
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A test of perseverance
for Muslim migrant workers
August 1, 2020
KUALA LUMPUR:
Muslim migrants, who are celebrating Hari Raya Aidiladha thousands of miles
away from their homes, were sad that they could not perform prayers in mosques
this year.
Mainly from
Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia and Myanmar, the migrants said this Hari Raya
Aidiladha was nothing like they had experienced before in their lives.
Apart from the
Recovery Movement Control Order, they said other measures to combat Covid-19
such as the barring of visits, hugging and foreign congregation dampened the
normally joyful day.
Nevertheless,
they took the restrictions in good faith, calling them a test of preseverance
from Allah.
Muhammad Mokhsin
Mia from Bangladesh said his plans to return home to celebrate Aidiladha was
dashed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The 35-year-old
car wash worker said it had been two years since he saw his wife, two children
and parents, and was looking forward to seeing them this year.
The joyful
reunion, however, never took place, instead he celebrated the auspicious day in
a sombre mood surrounded by a handful of friends.
"This
Aidiladha is a very sad one for me because I am supposed to be celebrating it
with my family.
"I was
looking forward to the trip and had even saved up to spend there. But my plans
never materialised.
"I am
stranded here due to the Covid-19 restrictions, spending Aidiladha on my
own," said Mokhsin, who looked visibly moved, in Setiawangsa, near here,
yesterday.
Since he could
not visit his family, he said he sent them the money he had been saving up for
a year.
"That's the
best I can do in this situation. I will continue to pray for their
safety."
Mokhsin said
what he missed the most was performing Aidiladha prayers in the mosque.
"The
camaraderie of praying together in a big group and spending a little time with
familiar faces mean a lot when you are in a foreign land.
"Every
Aidiladha, I would get up early to go to the mosque but this year, it is
different because we (he and five other housemates) know we can't pray at the
mosque together.
"So we came
up with a plan to perform solat at a convenient place," he said, adding
that it helped to lift their Aidiladha spirit since all five of them were from
the same place.
They performed
prayers at a restaurant next to his workplace. Mokhsin said he started his day
by calling his family in Bangladesh.
"We had a
long video chat before I helped with the food preparation."
Another
immigrant celebrating Aidiladha far from his family is Muhamad Habib Chouldri,
38, also from Bangladesh.
He said the hype
and excitement surrounding the auspicious day were hardly felt this year.
"We
couldn't perform prayers with our friends from other places at mosques. It's a
bit disappointing for me."
"The
government's restrictions in disallowing foreigners to pray at mosques have
dampened the Aidiladha spirit and excitement for many of us residing
here."
Habib said at
first, he felt the restrictions were unfair when they were first announced but
later he understood why such drastic measures had to be enforced.
"I wasn't
aware of the severity (of Covid-19) and felt the government was wrong to stop
us from fulfilling our religious obligations, but now all that thought has
changed and I am grateful to the government for keeping us safe."
As for
52-year-old Muhd Khusaini Samin, not being able to perform Aidiladha prayers at
the mosque like he used to do in the past 10 years was disheartening.
The father of
two, who is married to a Malaysian, said he came to Malaysia from Palembang,
Indonesia, in 2009 to work before he met his wife, Norhayati Khamis, in 2012.
"We have
two sons, aged 8 and 12, who I took to the mosque for prayers without fail.
"But since
the lockdown, none of us have been able to perform prayers in the mosque. The
spirit of Aidiladha that we normally experience is just not there."
Khusaini, who is
a permanent resident card holder, said for this Aidiladha, he led the prayers
for his family at home.
"It doesn't
feel like Aidiladha at all.
Hopefully, the
world will be free of this virus soon, so we all can go back to our normal
lives."
https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2020/08/613181/test-perseverance-muslim-migrant-workers
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/muslim-community-members-offer-baqrid/d/122531