Interfaith Love: Hired Members of a Hardline Hindu Nationalist Group Allegedly Killed 24-Year-Old Arbaz Mullah
New Age Islam News Bureau
30 November 2021
Nazima Shaikh, mother of Arbaz Mullah weeps as she
speaks to the Associated Press at her home in Belagavi, India, Oct. 6, 2021.
-----
• Taliban Forces in Afghanistan Executed or
'Disappeared' More Than 100 Former Military Personnel: Report
• Blogger Sauleha Imtiaz’s ‘Bareheaded’ Photos at
Kartarpur Gurdwara Provokes Controversy
• Boebert in Call Refuses To Apologize For Anti-Muslim
Remarks
• Saudi Arabia Strived For 40 Years to Make Mideast
Free Of Nuclear Weapons: Ambassador
India
• Omicron Threat: Mosques in Hyderabad Launch Free
Vaccination Drive
• Activists Slam Police Action against Munawar Faruqui
--------
South Asia
• 50 Per Cent Private Education Centres In Afghanistan
Shut Since Taliban Takeover
• Are US-led sanctions worsening Afghanistan’s
humanitarian crisis?
• Argentina Court to Investigate Myanmar War Crimes
against Rohingya Muslims
• Bomb blast in Kabul wounds five civilians including
Taliban
--------
Pakistan
• Pakistan Backs Saudi Proposal to Host OIC Summit on
Afghan Crisis
• A Convict Was Invited To Moot Attended By Judges,
Deplores PM Imran
• Pakistan needs to benefit from EU experience for
modernising agri: Imam
• SBP signs agreement for $3bn Saudi fund
--------
North America
• 9/11 Survivors Want Afghanistan’s $7bn Funds in US
Paid as Compensation
• Scrutiny committee submits report in PTI foreign
funding case
• Pentagon to probe 2019 airstrike that killed
civilians in Syria's Baghuz
--------
Arab World
• Saudi Arabia slams Israeli president’s visit to
Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron
• Third Islamic State attack in three days hits
northern Iraq
• Eight Iraqi officers probing attack on PM arrested
on charges of negligence
• Erdogan says also plans steps with Egypt, Israel
after UAE visit
• Arab Coalition carries out 15 strikes against
Iran-backed Houthi militia
• Qatar to send foreign minister to cash-strapped
Lebanon for support
--------
Mideast
• OIC Decries Israeli President’s Visit to Ibrahimi
Mosque in Hebron
• FM: Agreement in Vienna Possible, Iran Not to Accept
Demands beyond N. Deal
• Spokesman: Iran Sensitive to Afghan People’s
Conditions
• Iran Raps British Foreign Secretary for Attempt to
Prevent Success of Vienna Talks
• Iran nuclear deal talks resume in Vienna amid muted
hopes
• 74 years on, Palestinians remain stateless
--------
Southeast Asia
• World Squash Championship Cancelled After Malaysia
Refused To Allow Israeli Players
• PAS lawmaker wants Putrajaya to curb LGBTQ shows on
Netflix, but minister says not possible
• PM Ismail Sabri describes first official visit to
Singapore as a success
--------
Africa
• Morocco to Push For Israeli-Palestinian Peace Talks:
King Mohammed VI
• Sudan's army chief visits border area with Ethiopia
following attack
• Somali premier pledges election transparency amid
political tensions
--------
Europe
• Mediterranean States Seek To Bolster Peace Efforts
In Palestine, Libya, Syria
• EU intends to continue talks with Taliban after
2-day negotiations
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/interfaith-love-hardline-hindu/d/125872
--------
Interfaith Love: Hired Members of a Hardline Hindu
Nationalist Group Allegedly Killed 24-Year-Old Arbaz Mullah
Nazima Shaikh, mother of Arbaz Mullah weeps as she
speaks to the Associated Press at her home in Belagavi, India, Oct. 6, 2021.
-----
November 29, 2021
By Sheikh Saaliq
Associated Press journalists Shonal Ganguly, Aijaz
Rahi and Chonchui Ngashangva contributed to this report.
BELAGAVI, India (AP) — Arbaz Mullah’s love story
began, as romances often do, when he first laid eyes on the woman of his
dreams, Shweta Kumbhar.
Over nearly three years, their courtship in many ways
resembled that of any other couple and they made each other promises to get
married. But those secret vows would never be fulfilled.
The romance so angered relatives of Kumbhar, a Hindu,
that they allegedly hired members of a hard-line Hindu nationalist group to
kill 24-year-old Mullah, who was Muslim.
They did exactly that, according to police. On Sept.
28, his bloodied and dismembered body was found on a stretch of railroad
tracks.
While interfaith unions between Hindus and Muslims are
rare in India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party,
or BJP, and other Hindu nationalists have decried what they call “love jihad.”
The discredited conspiracy theory holds that supposedly predatory Muslim men
deceive women to coerce them into changing their religion, with the aim of
establishing domination in the majority-Hindu nation.
The “love jihad” issue has pitted the BJP against
secular activists who warn it undermines constitutional guarantees of religious
freedom and puts Muslims in the crosshairs of Hindu nationalists, emboldened by
a prime minister who has mostly stayed mum about rising attacks on Muslims
since he was first elected in 2014.
“This conspiracy theory demonizes the Muslim as the
other and creates victimhood and fears in the Hindus that India is going to be
converted into a Muslim country,” said Mohan Rao, a retired professor of social
sciences at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University who has researched
interfaith marriage.
Gopal Krishna Agarwal, a BJP spokesman, said the party
has no objection in principle to interfaith marriages, which are legal, but
suggested that concerns about “love jihad” are valid.
“To lure somebody through financial means, or some
coercion, or some sort of motive to convert, that is not acceptable,” Agarwal
said.
India’s National Investigation Agency and some court
rulings have rejected the “love jihad” theory as baseless. Census data show the
country’s religious mix has been stable since 1951, and India remains
predominantly Hindu with Muslims making up about 14% of its nearly 1.4 billion
people.
Nonetheless, rights groups say violence against
interfaith couples has increased in recent years, perpetrated by hardline Hindu
nationalists out to stop such relationships. Hundreds of Muslim men have been
assaulted, and many couples have been forced to go into hiding. Some have been
killed.
It was against that backdrop of fear that Mullah and
Kumbhar began dating in late 2018 in the city of Belagavi in the southern state
of Karnataka.
Mullah’s mother, Nazima Shaikh, was worried. She was
all too familiar with the frequent news stories about interfaith couples being
targeted in Karnataka, which is governed by Modi’s party.
“I was unsettled because I knew how it could end,”
Shaikh said on a recent afternoon at her modest home.
She tried to persuade Mullah to end the relationship,
but he refused.
Meanwhile Kumbhar’s family was aghast. Shaikh said she
appealed to them to give the relationship their blessing but was told that
“they will kill or get killed but won’t let their daughter marry my son.”
Soon, Mullah began receiving threatening calls. First
they came from Kumbhar’s family, then from members of the hard-line Hindu
nationalist group Sri Ram Sena Hindustan, or Lord Ram’s Army in India. They
demanded money and for Mullah to break up with Kumbhar.
Kumbhar’s parents also sought to stop her from seeing
him, so the couple began meeting clandestinely in faraway towns and in fields
in the countryside, according to friends.
When the threats intensified, Mullah reluctantly
agreed to end the relationship after being told it would mean he would no
longer be bothered. But the couple continued to correspond in secret — and her
family was incensed when they found out. It wasn’t long before he was summoned
to meet again with the members of Sri Ram Sena Hindustan.
Investigators say that at the meeting, Sri Ram Sena
Hindustan members bludgeoned Mullah with clubs and decapitated him using a
knife. They then allegedly placed his body on the railroad tracks to try to
make it look like he died when a train ran over him.
Ten people were soon arrested, though formal charges
have yet to be brought. They include Kumbhar’s parents, who according to senior
investigator Laxman Nimbargi have confessed to paying the killers.
The Associated Press was unable to speak with Kumbhar.
After a brief time in police custody, she is now staying with relatives who
declined to make her available or even say where she is.
Sri Ram Sena Hindustan denied that its members killed
Mullah and said the group was being targeted for “working for the benefit of
Hindus.”
Its leader, Ramakant Konduskar, who calls himself a
foot soldier in the battle to save Hinduism, said he is not against any
religion but people should marry within their own. He considers “love jihad” a
threat to society.
Some jurisdictions governed by Modi’s party have now
begun trying to codify that sentiment into law.
Last year lawmakers in Uttar Pradesh passed India’s
first “love jihad” law, requiring couples from different religions to provide
two months’ notice to an official before getting married.
Under the law it’s up to the official to determine whether
a conversion came about through compulsion, a crime punishable by up to 10
years in prison. Because authorities can make couples’ names public during the
process, hard-liners have sometimes intervened to pressure women’s families to
bring charges of forced conversion.
So far nearly 100 people have been arrested under the
law, though only a few have been convicted. Three other states governed by the
BJP have introduced similar measures.
Critics say the bills violate the constitutional right
to privacy. They also view the laws as deeply patriarchal.
“Women are not assets,” said Renu Mishra, a lawyer and
women’s rights activist in Uttar Pradesh.
Some liberal activists, most of them Hindus, have
formed social and legal aid groups for interfaith couples and celebrate their
stories on social media.
But in Belagavi, a relatively small city, such
resources and support are lacking. Karnataka state has recently seen a rise in
anti-Muslim attacks, exacerbating fears among the community.
In that environment, Mullah felt he had nowhere to
turn, according to those close to him.
“My son made a terrible mistake of loving a Hindu
woman,” Shaikh said.
She paused, searching for the right words, before
continuing, “Is this what you get for loving someone?”
___
Associated Press journalists Shonal Ganguly, Aijaz
Rahi and Chonchui Ngashangva contributed to this report.
Source: Religion News Service
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
https://religionnews.com/2021/11/29/interfaith-love-a-risk-amid-indias-hindu-nationalist-surge/
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Taliban Forces in Afghanistan Executed or
'Disappeared' More Than 100 Former Military Personnel: Report
Photo: Bloomberg
-----
November 30, 2021
Taliban forces in Afghanistan have summarily executed
or forcibly disappeared more than 100 former police and intelligence officers
in just four provinces since taking over the country on August 15, despite a
proclaimed amnesty, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on Tuesday.
The report documents the killing or disappearance of
47 former members of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) -- military
personnel, police, intelligence service members, and militia -- who had surrendered
to or were apprehended by Taliban forces between August 15 and October 31.
Human Rights Watch gathered credible information on more than 100 killings from
Ghazni, Helmand, Kandahar, and Kunduz provinces alone.
"The Taliban leadership's promised amnesty has
not stopped local commanders from summarily executing or disappearing former
Afghan security force members," said Patricia Gossman, associate Asia
director at Human Rights Watch. "The burden is on the Taliban to prevent
further killings, hold those responsible to account, and compensate the
victims' families."
Human Rights Watch interviewed 40 people in-person in
the four provinces and another 27 by telephone, namely witnesses, relatives and
friends of victims, former government officials, journalists, healthcare
workers, and Taliban members. A Taliban commander said that those responsible
for atrocities "cannot be forgiven."
The Taliban leadership has directed members of
surrendering security force units to register to receive a letter guaranteeing
their safety. However, Taliban forces have used these screenings to detain and
summarily execute or forcibly disappear people within days after they register,
leaving their bodies for their relatives or communities to find.
The Taliban have also been able to access employment
records that the former government left behind, using them to identify people
for arrest and execution.
In just one example, in Kandahar city in late
September, Taliban forces went to the home of Baz Muhammad, who had been
employed by the National Directorate of Security (NDS), the former state
intelligence agency, and arrested him. Relatives later found his body.
The Taliban have also carried out abusive search
operations, including night raids, to apprehend and, at times, forcibly
disappear suspected former officials.
"Taliban night raids are terrifying," a
civil society activist from Helmand province said. "They are conducted on
the pretext of disarming ex-security forces who have not surrendered weapons.
Those that 'disappear' are (victims) of night raids. The family can't report or
confirm. The families can't even ask where (the person has been taken)."
During searches, the Taliban often threaten and abuse
family members to make them reveal the whereabouts of those in hiding. Some of
those eventually apprehended have been executed or taken into custody without
acknowledgement that they are being held, or information about their location.
The Taliban's intelligence department in Helmand
detained Abdul Raziq, a former provincial military officer, after he had
surrendered in late August. Since then, his family has been unable to find out
where he is being held, or if he is still alive.
The executions and disappearances have generated fear
among former government officials and others who might have believed that the
Taliban takeover would bring an end to the revenge attacks that had been
characteristic of Afghanistan's long armed conflict.
Particularly in Nangarhar province, the Taliban have
also targeted people they accuse of supporting the Islamic State of Khorasan
Province (ISKP, an affiliate of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS). As the
United Nations reported, Taliban operations against ISKP "rely heavily on
extra-judicial detentions and killings." Many of those killed have been
targeted because of their Salafist views, or their particular tribal
affiliations.
On September 21 the Taliban announced the
establishment of a commission to investigate reports of human rights abuses,
corruption, theft, and other crimes. The commission has not announced any
investigations into any reported killings, although it did report on the arrest
of several Taliban members for stealing, and the dismissal of others for
corruption. In a November 21 response to Human Rights Watch's findings, the Taliban
said that they have dismissed those responsible for abuses but provided no
information to corroborate their claim.
"The Taliban's unsupported claims that they will
act to prevent abuses and hold abusers to account appears, so far, to be
nothing more than a public relations stunt," Gossman said. "The lack
of accountability makes clear the need for continued UN scrutiny of
Afghanistan's human rights situation, including robust monitoring,
investigations, and public reporting."
Source: Business Standard
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
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Blogger Sauleha Imtiaz’s ‘Bareheaded’ Photos At
Kartarpur Gurdwara Provokes Controversy
A female blogger’s photos taken at the Kartarpur
Gurdwara
----
November 29, 2021
A female blogger’s photos taken at the Kartarpur
Gurdwara has sparked controversy on social media on Monday.
The Punjab Police has launched an investigation soon
after the controversy started making rounds on the social media, after an
Indian Sikh journalist, Ravinder Singh Robin shed light on the offensive nature
of the photo-shoot on Twitter.
“Modelling bareheaded for ladies’ attire, in the
premises of Gurdwara Sri Darbar Sahib at #KartarpurSahib in Pakistan, by a
Lahorite woman has [severely] hurt the religious sentiments of Sikhs,” he
stated.
Soon after, the Punjab Police tweeted that they were
“investigating all aspects related to this incident and strict legal action
will be taken against [those] responsible”.
“[The] management of concerned brand & model are
being investigated. Worship places of all religions are equally respectable,”
it said.
It is pertinent to note that the blogger’s photos were
shared on the Instagram page of a clothing brand named Mannat Clothing, but
were removed after the criticism.
As per the sources, the police would first investigate
the “model” and the brand’s role in the capturing of the photos and later
“register a case”, while adding that “[Police] are checking whether the model
conducted the photoshoot on her own or the brand carried out the session.”
Later, the blogger, Sauleha Imtiaz apologised for the
pictures, while clarifying that the pictures were not part of a formal
photoshoot.
“I just went to Kartarpur to learn about the history
and know about the Sikh community. It wasn’t done to hurt anyone[‘s] sentiments
or anything for that matter. However, if I have hurt anyone or they think that
I don’t respect their culture, I am Sorry,” she stated.
“I respect the Sikh culture very much and I am sorry
to all the Sikh community.”
The clothing brand Mannat in their defense, clarified
that “the pictures posted on our accounts are NOT part of any [photo]shoot done
by Mannat Clothing. These pictures were provided to us by a third party
(blogger) in which they were wearing our dress.”
“However, we accept our mistake that we should not
have posted this content and we apologise to every single person who was
offended by this,” the statement added.
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said “the designer
and the model must apologise to Sikh community” over the photos.
“Kartarpur Sahib is a religious symbol and not a film
set,” he tweeted.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Political
Communication Shahbaz Gill termed the blogger’s photos “stupid and
unthoughtful”, saying the designer must apologise for “hurting Sikh community’s
religious sentiments”.
Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar also took notice of
the incident, sought a report from the chief secretary and ordered an inquiry
into it.
Buzdar also sought action against the officials who
allowed the “modelling”, with a statement saying “Not only will action be taken
against those responsible after a comprehensive investigation into the incident
but it will also be seen being taken.”
Source: Pakistan Today
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
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Boebert In Call Refuses To Apologize For Anti-Muslim Remarks
Rep. Lauren Boebert (Photo | AP)
-----
Nov 30, 2021
Days after firebrand conservative Rep. Lauren Boebert
of Colorado was harshly criticized for making anti-Muslim comments about Rep.
Ilhan Omar a Minnesota Democrat whom she likened to a bomb-carrying terrorist,
the two spoke by phone Monday.
By both lawmakers' accounts, it did not go well.
The conversation, which Boebert sought after issuing a
tepid statement last Friday, offered an opportunity to extend a fig leaf in a
House riven by tension. Instead, it ended abruptly after Boebert rejected
Omar's request for a public apology, amplifying partisan strife that has become
a feature, not a bug, of the GOP since a mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed
the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Boebert previously apologized “to anyone in the Muslim
community I offended," but not directly to Omar.
It's just the latest example of a GOP lawmaker making
a personal attack against another member of Congress, an unsettling trend that
has gone largely unchecked by House Republican leaders. It also offers a test
of Democrats' newfound resolve to mete out punishment to Republicans.
Earlier this month conservative Rep. Paul Gosar of
Arizona was censured over a violent video. In February Rep. Marjorie Taylor
Greene of Georgia was booted from congressional committees for her inflammatory
rhetoric.
After Monday's phone call, Omar and Boebert quickly
issued statements condemning each other.
“I believe in engaging with those we disagree with
respectfully, but not when that disagreement is rooted in outright bigotry and
hate,” Omar said in a statement. She said she “decided to end the unproductive
call.”
Boebert shot back in an Instagram video: “Rejecting an
apology and hanging up on someone is part of cancel culture 101 and a pillar of
the Democrat Party."
The chain of events was set in motion over a week ago
when Boebert posted a video to Facebook of her speaking before constituents,
describing an interaction with Omar — an interaction that Omar maintains never
happened.
In the video, the freshman Colorado lawmaker claims
that a Capitol Police officer approached her with “fret on his face” shortly
before she stepped aboard a House elevator and the doors closed.
“I look to my left and there she is — Ilhan Omar. And
I said, ‘Well, she doesn’t have a backpack. We should be fine,’" Boebert
says with a laugh.
Omar is Muslim. Boebert's comment about Omar not
wearing a backpack was an apparent reference to her not carrying a suicide
bomb.
Reaction to the video was swift. Omar called on House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy to “take
appropriate action” because “normalizing this bigotry not only endangers my
life but the lives of all Muslims. Anti-Muslim bigotry has no place in
Congress.”
House Democratic leadership also issued a joint
statement condemning “Boebert’s repeated, ongoing and targeted Islamophobic
comments and actions,” while calling on McCarthy "to finally take real
action to confront racism.”
Yet McCarthy, who is in line to become House speaker
if Republicans retake the majority next year, has proven reluctant to police
members of his caucus whose views are often closely aligned with the party's
base.
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said the speaker had
nothing new to add Monday and pointed to the statement issued by Democratic
leaders last week calling on McCarthy to act.
Boebert tweeted Friday that “I apologize to anyone in
the Muslim community I offended with my comment about Rep. Omar," adding
that "there are plenty of policy differences to focus on without this
unnecessary distraction.”
It's not Boebert's first brush with controversy — nor
Omar's. Since Boebert's election to Congress in 2020, she has leaned in to
provocative broadsides that delight the party's base. Omar has drawn her focus
in particular. She has previously called Omar and others “full time propagandists"
for "state sponsored terrorism,” and “politicians with suicide belts
strapped their body.”
In May, she tweeted that Omar was “a full-time
propagandist for Hamas.” She has also called Omar and Michigan Rep. Rashida
Tlaib "evil” while also referring to them as the “jihad squad.” Tlaib,
like Omar, is Muslim.
Omar too has drawn scrutiny for her comments, often in
reference to Israel, some of which have been blasted as anti-Semitic.
In 2019, she suggested that Israel’s supporters are
pushing U.S. lawmakers to take a pledge of “allegiance to a foreign country.”
She was also pressured to apologized “unequivocally” for suggesting that
congressional support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins baby,” a
longstanding trope about Jews buying influence.
House Democratic leadership intervened and directly
rebuked Omar over the remarks.
Source: Independent UK
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
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Saudi Arabia Strived For 40 Years To Make Mideast Free
Of Nuclear Weapons: Ambassador
Kingdom’s Permanent Representative to the United
Nations, Ambassador Abdallah al-Mouallimi
------
30 November, 2021
Saudi Arabia and the countries of the region have
sought for more than forty years to make the Middle East a region free of nuclear
weapons and other weapons of mass destruction, the Kingdom’s Permanent
Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Abdallah al-Mouallimi, said in
a speech.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
Al-Mouallimi delivered the speech in New York at the
second session of the Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone
Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction, the official
Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported Tuesday.
Saudi Arabia has been and is still at the forefront of
countries supporting the establishment of nuclear-weapon-free zones all over
the world, especially in the Middle East region, al-Moaullimi said in his
speech.
“The proposition that some countries push, which is based
on the fact that the security environment and the international situation are
not conducive to moving forward with the complete elimination of weapons of
mass destruction in our region, represents a false logic,” the ambassador said.
“We are all here in this hall to strive to achieve
this goal except for one party, which is Israel, which continues to obstruct
all initiatives and negotiations for the establishment of a zone free of
nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction,” he added.
He said that the establishment of nuclear-weapon-free
zones, especially in the Middle East, is one of the basic measures to achieve
the purposes and principles of the UN charter related to the maintenance of
international peace and security and the promotion of good-neighborliness,
friendly relations and cooperation among states, SPA reported.
Iran
Al-Moaullimi added in his speech that Saudi Arabia
supports international efforts to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,
expressing the Kingdom’s deep concern about Iran’s behavior that contradicts
its declared peaceful nuclear activities.
He called on Iran to seize the current diplomatic
opportunities to enter into serious negotiations over its nuclear program.
“The establishment of a Middle East zone free of nuclear
weapons and weapons of mass destruction is no longer just an option, but has
become an imperative, as achieving security, stability and comprehensive
coexistence in our region will not be complete without the disarmament of all
weapons of mass destruction,” al-Moaullimi said.
Source: Al Arabiya
Please click the following URL to read the text of the
original story:
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India
Omicron threat: Mosques in Hyderabad launch free
vaccination drive
29th November 2021
Hyderabad: In response to the Omicron alert in the
state and resistance to COVID-19 immunisation in some parts of the Old City,
Muslim social workers and religious leaders have stepped forward to organise
vaccination clinics in mosques.
The immunisation drive is organised in partnership
with the Helping Hand Foundation (HHF), a local non-governmental organisation,
and SEED, a US-based non-governmental organisation.
Around 100 volunteers, counsellors, vaccinators, data
entry operators, supervisors, and support personnel from mosques will
participate in the immunisation drive, which will go on for six months. The
volunteers will go door to door to inoculate people in around 100 slums.
According to a preliminary assessment survey,
vaccination coverage in the Old City’s minority-dominated sections is low. As
per the survey, 35 percent of adults have not had their first dose of
vaccination and 67 percent have not received their second dose of vaccination
in the catchment area of 20 slums.
Three mosques in Rajendranagar, Hasanagar, and Shaheen
Nagar, which operate basic health care centres in their area, will lead the
vaccination initiative.
On Monday, MIM legislator Akbaruddin Owaisi formally
launched the vaccination drive in Masjid Mohammad Mustafa in Rajendranagar.
Source: Daily Siasat
Please click the following URL to read the full text
of the original story:
https://www.siasat.com/omicron-threat-mosques-in-hyderabad-launch-free-vaccination-drive-2232997/
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Activists slam police action against Munawar Faruqui
Nov 30, 2021
A day after comedian Munawar Faruqui through a tweet
bid ‘goodbye’ to stand-up comedy, lawyers and activists in the city on Monday
argued that the Bengaluru police’s actions that led to the cancellation of
Faruqui’s show amounts to dereliction of duty by the police.
They said that though an event held in a private space
doesn’t require any police permission, the fact the police failed to act
against a group threatening to cause ruckus at the venue showed that they
failed to perform their duty.
A show by Faruqui was cancelled on Sunday, hours
before it was supposed to be held in Bengaluru, after the city police ‘suggested’
that the organizers cancel the event, citing possible law and order problems
amid protest by right-wing outfits.
Bengaluru police on Sunday wrote to the organisers of
the event, after a letter was sent by Hindu Janjagruti Samiti, a right wing
group, to Bengaluru police commissioner Kamal Pant on the same day asking
police to cancel the event. The petition said that Faruqui has a habit of
making ‘unacceptable’ jokes on Hindu gods, Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2020,
Godhra massacre of karsevaks’.
“Allowing Munawar Faruqui, who hurts religious
sentiments of Hindus, is providing an opportunity for him to repeat those
crimes…. should such a programme that disturbs the communal harmony be allowed
when the memories of DJ Halli riots are still fresh?” read the letter, while
threatening to take to the streets if the stand-up show is held.
Members of the organization have been charged with the
murder of editor-activist Gauri Lankesh and scholar M.M. Kalburgi.
Hours later Ashok Nagar police issued the letter to the
organizers “advising” them that they “should cancel the show”. The letter,
though doesn’t mention the HJS petition, says they have credible information
that several organizations are opposing the show. The organizers had informed
the Ashok Nagar police of the show titled “Dongri to Nowhere” in a letter on
November 15, as they need not take permission since it was to be held an
indoor, and the police had not taken objection to the same till HJS petitioned
the police.
Senior police officers aware of the development said
that they were pulled up for “not cancelling the show earlier” and were asked
to cancel it immediately. Senior police officials, however, refused to comment
on the issue.
Vinay Srinivas, a civil rights activist, and advocate
said forcing the organizers to cancel the show was a violation of the right to
freedom of speech and expression. “There is a Supreme Court judgement which
says no permission is needed to hold an event at a private venue. It is not the
police’s job to interfere in stopping such a performance, their job is to
provide security if there are threats,” he said.
All Indian Lawyer’s Association for Justice, in a
statement, claimed that at its core, the targeting of Munawar Faruqui is part
of a communal agenda of rightwing forces in India, which have the overt support
of the ruling dispensation. “AILAJ condemns the actions of Bangalore police in
issuing notice seeking cancellation of the comedy show by Munawar Faruqui. The
said notice is a violation of rule of law and clearly reveals that the police
force has abdicated its constitutional duty of protecting the fundamental right
of freedom of speech and expression, succumbing instead to pressures of
extremist communal right-wing forces,” read the statement.
“As such the issue of notice by the Bangalore police
to the organisers of the event must be seen as a declaration of support to
unconstitutional forces. The police force, which is funded by the people, must
be bound by the Constitution,” the statement added.
Clifton Rozario, a Bengaluru-based lawyer pointed out
that police’s failure to take action against an organisation that was
threatening to resort to violence is a dereliction of duty. “It is the job of
the police department to take action against such groups and they failed at their
job. There have been instances where courts have ordered cases to be filed
against senior officers for failure to act, this amounts to the same,” he said.
Source: Hindustan Times
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South Asia
50 per cent private education centres in Afghanistan
shut since Taliban takeover
29th November 2021
KABUL: Over 50 per cent of private education centres
have been closed within the past three months across Afghanistan since the
Taliban take over the country, local media reported citing the Union of Private
Education Centers.
As per the union, the deteriorated economic status of
families is the main reason for the closure of these educational centers.
"With changes happening in Afghanistan, many
educational facilities--40 to 50 per cent--stopped their activities. The reason
for that was the small number of students in the educational centers,"
Sanjar Khalid, head of the union said.
Some students said that the long time period has
affected their morale for continuing education.
"We are still hopeful to study to become a person
who can serve their country," said Shabana Habib Yar, a student, according
to Tolo News.
"We lost the motivation for the lessons because
it is still unclear whether we will go to school next year or not," said
Najia Sarwary, a student.
Mohammad Arif Jamal, the head of one of the private
education centers in western Kabul said that the number of students has dropped
60 per cent during the past three months compared to previous months.
Source: New Indian Express
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Are US-led sanctions worsening Afghanistan’s
humanitarian crisis?
By Arwa Ibrahim
29 Nov 2021
International aid organisations and experts say the
US-led sanctions on the Taliban government are hurting the Afghan people, and
called for “explicit humanitarian exemptions” for the delivery of aid to
prevent a “catastrophe”.
Following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan on
August 15, the aid-dependent country was cut off from international financial
institutions, while nearly $10bn of its assets were frozen by the US,
triggering a banking crisis.
Millions of dollars in international aid were also
halted due to the sanctions.
The UN and other aid agencies have been trying to
navigate the sanctions to deliver much-needed aid to the country, with more
than half of Afghanistan’s 38 million population facing imminent food shortages
in the harsh winter months.
“The US government, and other sanctions imposing
entities like the UN Security Council (UNSC), should do all they can to ensure
that Afghans have access to the humanitarian assistance to which they are
entitled,” said Eileen McCarthy, the Advocacy Manager at the Norwegian Refugee
Council (NRC).
“They should ensure sanctions and other restrictive
measures comply with international humanitarian and human rights law and do not
impede impartial humanitarian activities,” she told Al Jazeera.
‘Humanitarian catastrophe preventable’
More than 100 days into the Taliban’s rule,
Afghanistan’s economy has nearly collapsed, for which the UN envoy for
Afghanistan blamed on the financial sanctions. Deborah Lyons told the UNSC last
week that the “humanitarian catastrophe” in the country was “preventable”.
There have been alarming reports of public hospitals
unable to afford essential medical supplies or to pay staff salaries, and
families offering their young daughters for marriage in return for a brideprice
to help them survive.
The Taliban government, which has not been recognised
by any country or the United Nations, has banned foreign currency among other
measures to revive the economy, but the sudden drying up of millions of dollars
in aid flow crippled banks and businesses and sent food and fuel prices
rocketing.
While they blame the unfolding crisis on the Taliban
for not pursuing a political settlement, experts say Afghanistan’s crisis was
the result of international sanctions, making millions of dollars of aid that
supported the previous West-backed Afghan government inaccessible to the
Taliban’s Islamic Emirate.
“The total absence of liquidity in Afghanistan’s
system is the result of the suspension of direct bilateral aid and freezing of
the money of the central bank after the departure of international troops,”
said Dominik Stillhart, operations director at the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC), referring to the withdrawal of US-led NATO troops after
20 years of war.
“There is a political legitimacy crisis… but you
cannot hold the entire Afghan population hostage,” he said, explaining it was
impossible for an aid organisation to operate in a country without engaging
with the de-facto authority.
“If you want to provide or maintain basic services,
you have to work with the system in place,” Stillhart told Al Jazeera.
Adam Weinstein, a research fellow at the Quincy
Institute for Responsible Statecraft agreed: “It was one thing to navigate
sanctions on the Taliban when they weren’t the de facto government. But now
they are sitting in Kabul and the question becomes, ‘how do you conduct
business or provide aid in a country without touching the government?'”
Aid dependence
Sulaiman Bin Shah, Afghanistan’s former deputy
minister of industry and commerce until August 15, said the collapse of the Afghan
economy was an expected development because it was heavily dependent on
international aid.
“Afghanistan was so dependent on aid and donor money
in the past 20 years that the economy has been somewhat artificially created on
that premise,” said Bin Shah. “Now that money has vanished.”
Weinstein, who also served as a US marine in
Afghanistan, said because the country’s infrastructure and economy have been
built by Washington and the international community, they cannot continue
without them.
“Afghanistan is aid-dependent and grants account for
75 percent of public spending. This made the country completely reliant on the
international community’s willingness to continue that aid,” he told Al
Jazeera.
Source: Al Jazeera
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Argentina court to investigate Myanmar war crimes
against Rohingya Muslims
29 Nov 2021
Argentina’s justice system will investigate
allegations of war crimes committed by the Myanmar military against that
country’s Rohingya minority under a court ruling upholding the principles of
“universal justice”.
The appeals court decision, which Agence France-Presse
has seen, overturns a lower court ruling rejecting a request for an
investigation by the British-based Burmese Rohingya Organisation (BROUK).
A 2017 army crackdown on Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar,
which the UN says could amount to genocide, has triggered an exodus of more
than 740,000 members of the community, mainly to Bangladesh.
The legal premise of “universal justice” holds that
some acts – including war crimes and crimes against humanity – are so horrific
they are not specific to one nation and can be tried anywhere.
Argentina’s courts have taken up other universal
jurisdiction cases in the past, including in relation to ex-dictator Francisco
Franco’s rule in Spain and the Falun Gong movement in China.
Proceedings against Myanmar and its leaders are
already under way at the international criminal court and the UN’s
international court of justice.
Six Rohingya women, refugees in Bangladesh, had given
remote testimony to the court in Argentina.
One of the complainants said they “had all been
sexually assaulted and that many of their family members had died as a result
of the repression they had suffered” in August 2017, the court recalled.
Source: The Guardian
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https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/29/argentina-court-myanmar-war-crimes-rohingya
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Bomb blast in Kabul wounds five civilians including
Taliban
30 Nov 2021
A bomb that was planted on the main road in Police
District six of the Afghan capital wounded five people including the Taliban fighters
but the Taliban have not commented on the casualties.
The bomb has targeted a car of the Taliban fighters in
the Darulaman area of Kabul.
Spokesperson of the ministry of interior Affairs Saeed
Khostai confirmed the explosion but denied any financial loss and casualties.
He said the bomb was planted on the road but
eyewitnesses said that a magnetic bomb has exploded.
On the other hand, the spokesperson of the police
headquarter of Kabul General Mobin said there are casualties but has not
disclosed the exact number of people killed or wounded.
No group has claimed responsibility for the explosion
yet.
Source: Khaama Press
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https://www.khaama.com/bomb-blast-in-kabul-wounds-five-civilians-including-taliban-346436534/
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Pakistan
Pakistan backs Saudi proposal to host OIC summit on
Afghan crisis
By Mian Abrar
November 29, 2021
ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi
welcomed on Monday Saudi Arabia’s move to request an extraordinary session of
the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers to
discuss the situation in Afghanistan and announced that Pakistan had offered to
host the meeting in Islamabad on December 17.
According to a statement issued by the Foreign Office
(FO), Qureshi said Pakistan “fully endorses” the initiative taken by Saudi
Arabia and expressed confidence that other OIC members would also back the
proposal.
Saudi Arabia, which is the chair of the OIC summit,
made the call for the extraordinary session the same day, according to
state-run Saudi Press Agency.
The agency reported that the meeting had been called
to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and “pathways for an urgent
humanitarian response”, acknowledging Pakistan’s offer to host the summit.
Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan on August 15,
the country — already struggling with drought and severe poverty after decades
of war — has seen its economy all but collapse, raising the spectre of an
exodus of refugees.
According to the FO’s statement, Qureshi, too,
highlighted the need for providing humanitarian assistance to the people of
Afghanistan in these difficult times.
“Afghanistan is a founding member of the OIC. As part
of the Islamic Ummah, we are bound by fraternal bonds of amity and brotherhood
with the people of Afghanistan,” he said, stressing that “today, our Afghan
brothers and sisters need us more than ever before.”
Describing the situation in the warn-torn country, he
said Afghanistan currently “faces a serious humanitarian situation — millions
of Afghans, including women and children, confront an uncertain future due to
[the] shortage of food, medicines, and other essential life supplies”.
And the advent of winter had exacerbated this
humanitarian crisis, the foreign minister added.He emphasised the need for the
OIC to “step in to help our Afghan brethren”.
“We should step up our collective efforts to alleviate
the humanitarian needs of the Afghan people, provide immediate and sustained
support to them, and continue to remain engaged with them for the wellbeing and
prosperity of Afghanistan.”
According to the FO, the first extraordinary session
of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers was held in Islamabad in January 1980,
also on the then situation in Afghanistan.
Source: Pakistan Today
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A convict was invited to moot attended by judges,
deplores PM Imran
Syed Irfan Raza
November 30, 2021
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan again lamented on
Monday that former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who was convicted by the
Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case, was invited as chief guest at a recent
conference in which judges of the apex courts were also present.
The prime minister feared that another blasphemous
attempt would be made by the West against Holy Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) and
said this time a well-calculated and unanimous response should come from the
Muslims so that the false impression could not come to the fore that the
Muslims were against freedom of expression.
He accepted that the government was acting “quite
slowly” and that was the reason the prime minister university, which he had
dreamt three years ago, could not start functioning even today.
Fears another blasphemous attempt in West, calls for
calculated response from Muslim world
“A new culture has developed in the country in which
thieves are not treated as thieves. We have seen that at a recent conference at
Lahore, to which judges of the Supreme Court were invited, the chief guest was
the person who had been convicted by the apex court,” Mr Khan said in his
speech after inaugurating an academic block of the newly established Al-Qadir
University at Sohawa tehsil of Jhelum district, while referring to self-exiled
former prime minister Nawaz Sharif who had delivered a speech at Asma Jahangir
Conference as a chief guest.
Without naming Mr Sharif, the prime minister said:
“The chief guest was the persons who had plundered public wealth and fled
abroad on fake grounds.
“The moral fabric of a nation gets ruined if it stops
recognising corruption and dishonesty as evils,” he added.
Mr Khan said he wanted the nation to attain a “moral
renaissance” and raise leaders having a high moral character in line with the
Seerat of the Holy Prophet (PBUH).
About any future incident of blasphemy against the
Holy Prophet (PBUH), he said he would encourage the nation to rather
demonstrate an “intellectual and reasoned response”. “In case of any such
incident in future we will consult Muslim scholars and head of Muslim states to
give such a response which will not be called an attempt against freedom of
expression,” he added.
The prime minister stressed the need for reviving the
culture of glorious Muslim era where religion and science did not come into
conflict, and that encouraged ‘Ijtehad’ (reasoning) to find solutions to
emerging challenges.
He said today’s youth was facing confusion in the era
of social media that provided unhindered access to western culture. However, he
said, since restrictions could not be imposed on the flow of information, it
was important to give informed choices to the youth by telling them about right
and wrong.
“Calling someone Kafir (infidel) over difference of
opinion on religious beliefs is a dangerous trend, that needs to be shunned
through intellectual debate,” he added.
He expressed satisfaction over the pace of academic
work attained by the Al Qadir University in a short span of time and called for
conducting research on the golden era of Muslims when their leaders, scholars,
and scientists ruled the world.
Prime Minister Khan said he was also establishing a
“top-tech PM university” but due to slow governmental procedure the varsity
could not start its function. “The government works so slowly that after three
years of conceiving the concept of the university, we are now going to start
it,” he added.
Mr Khan said universities had a great role to play and
expressed confidence that the Al Qadir University would revive the norms of
research and healthy debate.
He said all Sufi saints of the sub-continent including
Baba Bulleh Shah, Nizamuddin Aulia, Data Ganj Bakhsh and Baba Farid, propagated
the message of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) that focused on the love for humanity.
He said a leader had four qualities: truthfulness,
justice, courage and selflessness.
Later, the prime minister took a round of different
academic blocks of the university and interacted with the faculty.
Our correspondent in Gujar Khan adds: The prime
minister said there was time in 60s when Pakistan was seen as a country that
was progressing fastest in the region and Pakistanis were respected all over
the world.
“I have seen Pakistan through its different phases.
There was a time when the US president personally received Pakistani president
at the airport and remarkable welcome was given to our president in Britain
during the 1960s because our country was progressing rapidly, and it was
predicted that Pakistan was going to be California of Asia. And then we also
saw the decline our country,” he said.
Meeting on agriculture
Chairing a meeting on agriculture, Prime Minister Khan
was apprised that as due measures had been taken against hoarding, the price of
fertiliser had registered an average decrease of Rs400 per bag.
The chief secretary of Punjab told the meeting that a
number of steps had been taken since Nov 13 to curb hoarding of fertilisers,
including registration of 347 first information reports, 244 arrests, 21,111
inspections, sealing of 480 godowns, and imposition of fines of Rs27.9 million.
Source: Dawn
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Pakistan needs to benefit from EU experience for
modernising agri: Imam
November 30, 2021
Federal Minister of National Food Security, Syed
Fakhar Imam on Monday said Pakistan needed to benefit from the experience of
European Union (EU) with respect to modernization of agriculture and upgradation
of value addition in agricultural products.
While talking to Ambassador of European Union to
Pakistan Ms Androulla Kaminara, who called on him here, he said Pakistan faces
a number of challenges but with the right policy interventions in collaboration
with EU, agriculture sector could be transformed.
He said EU has only 5.8 percent of the world’s
population and yet they generate 18 percent of global GDP which stands at US
$17 trillion in 2021.
An holistic approach is required to enhance the working
conditions of the farmers, he commented.
Imam also welcomed the EU development program of US
$250 million which primarily focuses on uplifting agriculture sector of
Pakistan via programs aimed at but not limited to horticulture, water
conservation and hydro power generation, livestock development and human
resource development especially basic health facilities for women and children
of the rural areas such as Tharparkar and Umerkot.
He added that agriculture had been tottering along the
traditional agricultural techniques and it is time that we start to look ahead
to the future in terms of modernization.
Source: Pakistan Observer
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SBP signs agreement for $3bn Saudi fund
Shahid Iqbal
November 30, 2021
KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan on Monday signed
an agreement with the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) to receive $3 billion,
which will be placed in the SBP’s account with an aim to improve its foreign
exchange reserves.
The agreement was signed by SFD Chief Executive Officer
Sultan Bin Abdul Rahman Al-Marshad and SBP Governor Dr Reza Baqir at the State
Bank in Karachi, according to a statement issued by the SBP.
In the last week of October, Saudi Arabia had agreed
to revive its financial support to Pakistan, including about $3 billion in safe
deposits and $1.2bn worth of oil supplies on deferred payments.
An agreement was reached during the visit of Prime
Minister Imran Khan to the kingdom last month.
Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry later announced
that Saudi Arabia had announced the support for Pakistan with $3bn as deposit
in the SBP and also financing refined petroleum product with $1.2bn during the
year.
“Under this deposit agreement, SFD shall place a
deposit of USD 3 billion with SBP. The deposit amount under the agreement shall
become part of SBP’s Foreign Exchange Reserves,” said the press release issued
on Monday.
However, it did not speak about the interest on $3bn
while the banking sources believe the interest rate is higher than the global
market.
When the SBP was officially contacted to know the
agreed rate of return on Saudi fund as there were massive speculations in
financial market about the rates being given on $3bn, it stated: “As per
agreement all terms are confidential and cannot be revealed without the consent
of both the parties.”
The press release further stated it would help support
Pakistan’s foreign currency reserves and contribute towards resolving the
adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The SBP said the deposit agreement reflected the strong
and special relationship between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and
will further augment the economic ties between the two brotherly countries.
However, the agreement for $3bn did not impact the
exchange rate and the local currency further lost against US dollar to reach at
an all-time low.
The US dollar kept its demand higher during the entire
session on Monday and closed at Rs176.20 as it gained 74 paisa.
Experts in the financial market said the imports would
not fall in coming months indicating that importers would keep buying dollars
for protecting future trading with possible higher dollar rates.
Source: Dawn
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https://www.dawn.com/news/1661004/sbp-signs-agreement-for-3bn-saudi-fund
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North America
9/11 survivors want Afghanistan’s $7bn funds in US
paid as compensation
Anwar Iqbal
November 30, 2021
WASHINGTON: Families of the 9/11 victims want the
entire $7 billion of Afghan assets — withheld at the US Federal Reserve — paid
as compensation for the terrorist attacks that killed and injured thousands,
the US media reported on Monday.
The New York Times reported that the Biden
administration “is scheduled to tell a federal court on Friday what outcome
would be in the US national interest,” — returning the money to Kabul or
distributing it among the survivors and families of the 9/11 victims.
“The US Justice Department has been negotiating with
lawyers for the 9/11 plaintiffs a potential deal to divide up the money, if the
government supports their attempt to seize it,” the report added.
“The White House National Security Council has been
working with agencies across the government to weigh the proposal.”
About 150 family members of Sept 11 victims went to
the courts nearly 20 years ago to seek compensation for their losses. Almost
3,000 people were killed, and more than 5,000 were injured. The lawsuit named
targets, like Al Qaeda and Taliban, who, they said, orchestrated the attack and
therefore must pay the compensation as well.
A decade later, a court found the defendants liable by
default and ordered them to pay damages now worth about $7 billion.
Source: Dawn
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Scrutiny committee submits report in PTI foreign
funding case
Iftikhar A. KhanP
November 30, 2021
ISLAMABAD: A scrutiny committee of the Election
Commission of Pakistan (ECP) constituted in March 2019 to audit the foreign
funds of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has finally submitted its
report to the commission — around six months after the last deadline it was
given.
Cources told Dawn that since two sitting members of
the ECP were out of town, the commission would examine the report upon their
return before taking up the case for an open hearing. The ECP member from
Sindh, Shah Muhammad Jatoi, is scheduled to return on Tuesday (today) and the
member from Balochistan on Wednesday.
The foreign funding case against the PTI continues to
linger since November 2014 when it was filed by the party’s founding member,
Akbar S. Babar.
In his petition, Babar had alleged serious financial
irregularities in the ruling party’s accounts, including illegal sources of
funding, concealment of bank accounts within the country and abroad, money
laundering and use of private bank accounts of party employees as a front to
receive illegal donations from the Middle East.
The case involving PTI awaiting ECP decision for seven
years
The ECP had in September last year trashed an
“incomplete” report of its scrutiny committee on the foreign funding case. In
an order, the commission said the report was neither complete nor well
detailed.
“The Scrutiny Committee on the basis of documents provided
by both the parties and collected from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has
neither scrutinised the record nor evaluated the evidence from the documents
and failed to form definite opinion,” the ECP noted.
While reprimanding the panel, it observed that it was
the duty and responsibility of the committee to scrutinise the authenticity,
reliability and credibility of each and every document(s) submitted to it by
both the parties. It said the committee had the authority to approach proper
forums, sources and people to confirm the authenticity or otherwise of the
documents.
“Admittedly, law provides criteria of authenticity and
credibility for scrutiny of the documents, but the committee has not adopted
proper procedure in this respect,” the ECP observed.
In its damning order on the scrutiny committee’s
report, the commission noted that no definite conclusion had been drawn. “It is
painful to say that... directions were not followed in strict sense... in spite
of lapse of more than 28/29 months,” it stated. It ordered the committee to
conduct the scrutiny afresh and complete it as soon as possible, but not later
than six weeks.
Under the last order, the scrutiny committee was
supposed to submit its report by the end of May, which it submitted now on
Friday.
The ECP had allowed perusal of the financial records
by two financial auditors of the petitioners during the fresh scrutiny process,
during which some startling revelations were made: one of which was about
authorising four paid PTI employees to receive donations from abroad in their
personal bank accounts.
Source: Dawn
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https://www.dawn.com/news/1661022/scrutiny-committee-submits-report-in-pti-foreign-funding-case
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Pentagon to probe 2019 airstrike that killed civilians
in Syria's Baghuz
Servet Günerigök
30.11.2021
WASHINGTON
The US Defense Department will investigate a 2019
airstrike in the Syrian town of Baghuz that killed dozens of civilians,
spokesman John Kirby announced Monday.
Speaking at a press briefing at the Pentagon, Kirby
said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a full review of the March 18 airstrike
in which US fighter jets killed 70 civilians, including women and children.
The investigation will be conducted by Gen. Michael
Garrett, the commander of US Army Forces Command.
"He will review the reports of investigation
already conducted into that incident and will conduct further inquiry into the
facts and circumstances related to it," Kirby told reporters.
The inquiry will include an assessment of the number
of casualties, compliance with the law of war, record keeping and reporting
procedures and whether accountability measures would be appropriate.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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Arab World
Saudi Arabia slams Israeli president’s visit to
Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron
Hamdi Yıldız
30.11.2021
Saudi Arabia on Monday condemned a visit by Israeli
President Isaac Herzog to the Ibrahimi Mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron
to celebrate the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, according to local media.
The act is a "flagrant violation of the sanctity
of the mosque," the kingdom’s official news agency SPA reported, citing a
statement by the Saudi Foreign Ministry.
The move is "hostile and provokes feelings of
Muslims all over the world," said the ministry, adding the Israeli
occupation bears the consequences of this move.
Herzog forced his way into the mosque on Sunday to
take part in a candle lighting ceremony held as part of Hanukkah.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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Third Islamic State attack in three days hits northern
Iraq
November 30, 2021
The Islamic State (IS) attacked Kurdistan Region
security forces in northern Iraq again today.
The assault occurred north of Kifri in the Diyala
province. There were casualties among the Kurdistan Region’s peshmerga forces,
the Erbil-based news outlet Kurdistan 24 reported.
The attack was the third in as many days by IS against
the peshmerga, who are the official military force of the Kurdistan Regional
Government (KRG). On Nov. 27, an IS bomb hit a peshmerga vehicle, also in the
Diyala province, killing five and injuring four, the KRG said in a press
release. Peshmerga forces repelled an attack in the same area yesterday,
according to Kurdistan 24.
Iraqi and Kurdistan Region forces defeated the Islamic
State in 2017 with the help of the US-led military coalition, but IS continues
to conduct small-scale attacks in the country. IS has been particularly active
in the territories disputed between the KRG and the federal government. Kifri
is one of these disputed areas.
Source: Al Monitor
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Eight Iraqi officers probing attack on PM arrested on
charges of negligence
29 November ,2021
Eight Iraqi officers have been arrested on charges of
negligence in probing an attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Mustafa
al-Kadhimi, a senior official said Monday.
Kadhimi escaped unhurt from the November 7
assassination bid, in an attack that has gone unclaimed.
Explosive-packed drones were used in the assault, with
one hitting his Baghdad residence while a second one failed to explode and was
found on the roof of the house.
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channel online or via the app.
A bomb disposal team and forensic experts were tasked
with examining the second drone to lift any possible fingerprints, national
security advisor Qassem al-Araji told a news conference.
The teams were then expected to blow up the drone but
later revealed they had failed to lift any fingerprints beforehand, Araji said.
As a result, a committee investigating the attack
decided to arrest the eight officers, including two generals, Araji said.
A probe into why they failed to carry out their
instructions has been launched, he added.
The commission “does not want to accuse anyone or any
faction”, Araji said. “But what happened indicates there has been negligence.”
Source: Al Arabiya
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Erdogan says also plans steps with Egypt, Israel after
UAE visit
29 November ,2021
President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would take steps
to improve ties with estranged rivals Egypt and Israel similar to those in
recent weeks with the United Arab Emirates, which led to investments, NTV and
other broadcasters said.
Ankara and Abu Dhabi signed accords for billions of
dollars of investments last week and Erdogan said they would herald a “new era”
in ties.
As part of a charm offensive launched last year,
Turkey has also moved to repair ties with Egypt and Saudi Arabia but those
talks have yielded little public improvement.
Earlier this month, Erdogan also held a rare phone
call with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett after Turkey’s release of a
detained Israeli couple.
“They (UAE) put up a $10 billion investment plan. By
putting this $10 billion into place, we will have built a very different
future,” Erdogan was cited as telling reporters on a flight back from
Turkmenistan, adding he would visit the UAE in February.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Arab Coalition carries out 15 strikes against
Iran-backed Houthi militia
29 November ,2021
The Arab Coalition on Monday said it carried out 15
attacks against the Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen’s Marib and al-Jawf in
the past 24 hours.
“The targeting in Marib and al-Jawf destroyed 12
vehicles and led to the deaths of more than 85 [militia] members,” the
coalition said in a statement.
The Arab Coalition fighting in Yemen said on Sunday it
had launched air strikes on “legitimate” military targets in the Yemeni
capital, Sanaa, as “an immediate response” to the threat and the launch of
drones from Sanaa airport.
Source: Al Arabiya
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Qatar to send foreign minister to cash-strapped
Lebanon for support
Waseem Saifeddin
29.11.2021
BEIRUT, Lebanon
Lebanese President Michel Aoun held talks in Doha on
Monday with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.
Tamim will dispatch his Foreign Minister Mohammed bin
Abdulrahman Al-Thani to Beirut to discuss ways of providing support to Beirut,
the Lebanese Presidency said in a statement.
The statement, however, did not specify a date for the
foreign minister’s visit to Lebanon.
Qatar “is ready to help Lebanon in all fields to
overcome the difficult conditions that have negatively affected the daily life
of the Lebanese,” the statement quoted the Qatari ruler as saying.
Aoun, for his part, described Qatar's support to
Lebanon as "exemplary" and welcomed the Qatari efforts to channel
investments for development projects in Lebanon.
The visit by the Lebanese president to Doha comes amid
a diplomatic crisis between Lebanon and Qatar’s Gulf neighbors Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain over critical statements of
Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi of the Saudi-led military campaign
in Yemen.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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Mideast
OIC decries Israeli president’s visit to Ibrahimi
Mosque in Hebron
Diana Shalhub
29.11.2021
ISTANBUL
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on
Monday condemned a visit by Israeli President Isaac Herzog to the Ibrahimi
Mosque in the West Bank city of Hebron to celebrate the Jewish festival of
Hanukkah.
Herzog forced his way into the mosque on Sunday to
participate in a candle-lighting Jewish ceremony. He was accompanied by a large
number of Israeli police forces and Jewish settlers.
In a statement, the Jeddah-based OIC decried the move
as a “provocation of sentiments of Muslims” and a “continuation of Israeli
assaults on the rights of the Palestinian people, their land and holy sites”.
The pan-Muslim grouping said the Israeli president’s
visit “was part of Israeli plans to Judaize the Ibrahimi Mosque and tighten
Israeli grip on it”.
The OIC called on the international community to
"act urgently to protect the holy and historical sites [in Palestine] and
to force the Israeli occupation authorities to respect the sanctity of the holy
sites."
On Sunday, Sheikh Hefthi Abu Sneina, director of the
Ibrahimi Mosque, said Israeli forces shut the mosque and prevented Palestinian
worshippers from reaching the site.
After the 1994 massacre of 29 Palestinian worshippers
inside the mosque by a Jewish extremist settler, Baruch Goldstein, the Israeli
authorities divided the mosque complex between Muslim and Jewish worshippers.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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FM: Agreement in Vienna Possible, Iran Not to Accept
Demands beyond N. Deal
2021-November-29
“What is clear in the forthcoming negotiations is that
Iran will not accept requests beyond the JCPOA. The Islamic Republic of Iran
will not enter into any discussion whatsoever about issues beyond the nuclear
deal,” Amir Abdollahian wrote in a memo in the Persian-language Iranoline
titled ‘Vienna Talks for the Removal of Sanctions’ on Monday.
“Deal is possible if other parties demonstrate
political will in practice,” he added.
Amir Abdollahian stressed that despite the unfulfilled
promises of the West and distrust towards the unconstructive approach and
policies of the White House, the Islamic Republic of Iran will endeavor
"with true determination" and "in good faith" in Vienna
negotiations to achieve a "good", sustainable and effective
verifiable deal for the lifting of sanctions.
The full text of the memo is as follows:
Iran is serious, acts in good faith, and considers the
practical and tangible result to be the removal of sanctions.
The path travelled
The path travelled during six rounds of intensive
negotiations in Vienna did not lead to success due to the US excessive demands
and unrealistic stances. Now we are starting a new round of talks. The main goal
of these negotiations is the restoration of the rights of the Iranian nation
and removal of all the sanctions imposed unilaterally and extraterritorially on
Iran by the United States which is no longer a party to the JCPOA. The US
pulled out of the JCPOA on 08 May 2018–a measure perceived and condemned
internationally as unlawful. There is international consensus that these
unlawful US behaviors demonstrate a total contempt for the international law
and the UN Charter, undermine multilateralism, and pose enormous menace to
international peace and security.
Despite the formation of a new government in the
United States, not only have the illegal and unilateral sanctions remained in
place, but the policy of imposing sanctions on Iran has continued to exist. It
is crystal clear that such US measures are aimed at preventing Iran and other
JCPOA participants as well as other members of the international community from
enjoying the rights and benefits described in the nuclear deal and UNSC
Resolution 2231. Regrettably, too, the governments of the three European
parties to the JCPOA, despite considering such a US approach as illegal and
unacceptable, moved to accommodate it in practice with their silence and
inaction. The alignment of the three JCPOA European countries with such
devastating US measures has rendered the nuclear deal ineffective, eliminating
all the economic dividends of the deal for Iran. These are the bitter realities
of the past several years which should illuminate the way forward to the future.
Continuing Trump’s disastrous approach by the present
US administration has raised the serious question of whether or not the present
US administration is truly determined to implement its obligations and prepared
to abandon the past failed policies. Answering this question does not appear
difficult considering the US approach and measures during the past months.
No one can indeed question Iran’s seriousness and
goodwill in fulfilling its obligations in their entirety. After the unlawful US
withdrawal and the imposition of sanctions, Iran refrained from remedial
measures in good faith, and, granting the request of the remaining JCPOA
participants and the European Union as the coordinator of the nuclear deal,
avoided resorting to the cessation of its commitments under the JCPOA so as to
provide the opportunity for other JCPOA participants to compensate for the
negative impacts of the US withdrawal. However, given the persistence of this
unconstructive state of affairs and after one year of strategic patience, due
to the escalation of US sanctions, and non-performance of the obligations of
the three European countries, Iran was left with no choice but to enforce its
rights as set forth in paragraphs 26 and 36 of the JCPOA and cease, partially
and in stages, performing its obligations as of 08 May 2019.
Witnessing no change in the status quo, in the absence
of an effective measure by the relevant JCPOA participants, and given the
regrettable history of developments, the parliament of Iran adopted, on 02
December 2020, the law of “the strategic action plan to lift sanctions and
protect the interests of the Iranian nation”. This law obligated the government
of Iran to gradually cease the implementation of all its voluntary commitments
under the JCPOA unless other parties to the deal fulfill their entire
obligations in practice.
The path ahead of Vienna talks
The Islamic Republic of Iran, in spite of significant
non-performance by the West in the JCPOA, is once again ready, in good faith,
for result-oriented negotiations to achieve a “good deal” with P4+1. The Islamic Republic of Iran has "good
faith", serious determination, and the necessary will to reach a good deal
in Vienna.
In this process, it should never be forgotten that the
United States is the main culprit behind the creation of the status quo. In the
past four years, the government of the United States has spared no effort to
crush the nuclear deal, and it was Iran that did all it could to keep the deal
alive. What became evident to Iran during the past six rounds of negotiations
is that the United States still fails to properly understand the fact that
there is no way to return to the JCPOA without verifiable and effective lifting
of all sanctions imposed on the Iranian nation after the US departure.
The United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231
calls upon all the member states to “take such actions as may be appropriate to
support the implementation of the JCPOA, including by taking actions
commensurate with the implementation plan set out in the JCPOA and this
resolution and by refraining from actions that undermine the implementation of
commitments under the JCPOA”.
The main objective of the upcoming talks should be the
full and effective implementation of the JCPOA and the pursuit of the goal of
normalization of trade relations and economic cooperation with Iran. It goes
without saying that in order to return to the JCPOA, Iran should benefit fully
from the lifting of all the sanctions. Iran is prepared to cease application of
all its remedial measures if guarantees are provided, damages are assessed, and
all sanctions are effectively and verifiably lifted.
The likely return of the US to the nuclear deal would
not be meaningful unless guarantees are presented to prevent the recurrence of
the bitter experience of the past and Iran’s trade partners could confidently
enter into long term economic engagement with Iran free from any concern.
What is clear in the forthcoming negotiations is that
Iran will not accept requests beyond the JCPOA. The Islamic Republic of Iran
will not enter into any discussion whatsoever about issues beyond the nuclear
deal.
I would like to emphasize once again that this
opportunity is not a window that could remain open forever and the US and the
three European countries must well understand this. The Islamic Republic of
Iran, while making its determined, strong and active diplomatic efforts to
remove the oppressive US sanctions, has devised an effective program to
neutralize the sanctions in line with its sustainable economic development
program.
Without doubt, Tehran remains as committed to
maintaining and safeguarding the achievements of its nuclear scientists and
peaceful nuclear industry as it remains obliged to non-diversion from its
peaceful nuclear program, and will not abandon its comprehensive development in
industry, trade, maritime, space, defense, science, and technology sectors, nor
will it curtail its increasing economic development.
Source: Fars News Agency
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Spokesman: Iran Sensitive to Afghan People’s
Conditions
2021-November-29
“We consider the today conditions in Afghanistan as
serious as winter has started and the people of Afghanistan are under severe
economic pressures. The Islamic Republic of Iran, as a brother country of
Afghanistan, cannot be indifferent to the situation of the Afghan people and
the displaced and those who have been deprived. In all days and months and
despite all the difficulties, we tried to keep the crossings open for interactions,”
Khatibzadeh told reporters in a press conference in Tehran on Monday.
He referred to the recent visit by Iranian President's
special envoy for Afghanistan Hassan Kazzemi Qomi to Afghanistan, saying that
as explicitly stated during Kazzemi Qomi's visit to Afghanistan, the ruling
body in Afghanistan has a direct responsibility to ensure the security of
Afghanistan's borders.
“Unfortunately, insecurities (continue) and certain
terrorist groups are recruiting and organizing terrorist acts, and the ISIL, in
particular, poses a serious threat to the future of Afghanistan and the region.
We will continue to work closely together so that we can have better days for
the future of Afghanistan,” Khatibzadeh said.
Kazzemi Qomi visited Kabul for a three-day trip last
week to hold talks with Taliban authorities and other Afghan politicians.
In a meeting with Taliban's acting Foreign Minister
Amir Khan Muttaqi, he underlined Tehran’s continued support for the Afghan
people.
Source: Fars News Agency
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https://www.farsnews.ir/en/news/14000908000555/Spkesman-Iran-Sensiive-Afghan-Peple%E2%80%99s-Cndiins
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Iran Raps British Foreign Secretary for Attempt to
Prevent Success of Vienna Talks
2021-November-29
"That such an article is released just a night
before Vienna talks shows that certain European countries do not come to the Austrian
capital with the necessary will to lift the sanctions," Khatibzadeh told
reporters in a press conference in Tehran on Monday.
"This shows that they are not serious and are
seeking to set the stage for prolonging these negotiations and preventing the
effective implementation of the nuclear deal," he added.
"The clock is ticking, which heightens the need
for close cooperation with our partners and friends to thwart Tehran’s
ambitions," Truss and Lapid wrote in the Telegraph.
Regarding the Israeli moves to disrupt the Vienna
negotiations, Khatibzadeh said, "The goal of the Zionist regime is to
disrupt the international order. The intention of the Zionist regime to disrupt
the JCPOA agreement is quite clear to us."
The Zionist regime, the Iranian diplomat said, as a
regime that has hundreds of nuclear warheads and does not respect international
monitoring systems, cannot comment on Iran's peaceful nuclear program, which is
under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Elsewhere, Khatibzadeh reiterated the country’s
serious determination to remove sanctions against Iran during the Vienna talks,
saying that Tehran has several choices if faced with Washington’s old policies.
“Iran seeks practical verification of implementation
of the US undertakings under the UNSCR 2231. One of our main lines will be
continued talks, and I will not talk about the other side’s strategy,” he
added.
“The Iranian delegation has arrived in Vienna with a
serious determination to reach an agreement and is thinking of fruitful talks,”
the spokesman added.
Khatibzadeh said that if the other side comes with the
same determination, both sides will be on the right track to lift the US
sanctions, adding that talks between Iran and the Group 4+1 (China, Russia,
France and Britain plus Germany) will begin in Vienna at 2:00 PM local time
Monday.
“What is important is that if the US comes to Vienna
with the determination to resolve the impasse and the issues that have not been
agreed upon by us in the previous rounds, the talks will be easier, and if the
US continues the previous path, Iran will definitely have several choices,” he
underlined.
“With serious will, real determination and good will,
we hope to be able to lift the US sanctions in the shortest possible time if
the other parties come to Vienna with a changed approach,” Khatibzadeh said.
“If the US comes to really remove the sanctions, it
can receive the ticket to return to the nuclear deal (negotiating) room,” he
added.
Khatibzadeh noted that Iran and the G4+1 are now at
the beginning of talks under the new Iranian government that has serious
determination and “the other parties should seize this window of opportunity
because it will not remain open forever”.
The spokesman also stressed that no bilateral talks
between Iran and the US will take place in Vienna.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said
last week that Tehran would participate in Vienna talks with a serious will to
reach an agreement, stressing the need for other sides to show seriousness too.
The issue of Vienna talks, the interaction and
cooperation with the world to realize the interests of the Iranian nation has
been a priority for the Iranian Foreign Ministry since the 13th government took
office, the Iranian Foreign Minister said in a video message in which he
presented a report on the 100-day performance of the foreign policy apparatus
after the formation of new government.
In recent weeks, Deputy Foreign Minister for Political
Affairs and the Iranian top negotiator in Vienna talks Ali Baqeri Kani has held
consultations in European capitals, in Moscow, he said.
Baqeri has also participated in virtual meetings in
Beijing and made some regional trips to neighboring countries, Amir Abdollahian
added.
"And I held detailed talks with the foreign
ministers of all Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) member
states."
He went on to say that this week, the new round of
nuclear talks will be kicked off in Vienna.
"We have made all the necessary arrangements to
reach a good and speedy agreement", he said, and added that other parties
to JCPOA must return to their full undertakings.
"We have explicitly expressed our positions and
demands towards Iran's nuclear deal known as JCPOA", the Iranian top
diplomat said.
The rights and interests of the Iranian people must be
preserved at the negotiating table and sanctions must be lifted, he stressed.
According to him, there are several options before
Iran, but the first option is the dialogue and negotiation in Vienna.
"We are serious in negotiations and in reaching
an agreement", he said, expressing the hope that Iran would also “see the
seriousness of the westerners”.
Amir Abdollahian also voiced the hope that all sides
could take fundamental and successful steps in the Vienna talks.
Baqeri Kani arrived in Vienna, the capital city of
Austria, on Saturday at the head of a delegation to attend the next round of
the JCPOA Joint Commission meeting.
He is heading the Iranian negotiating team in the
Monday's meeting with members of the G4 +1 group and the European Union on
lifting the US sanctions.
Last Friday, Amir Abdollahian in phone talks with EU
foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell said that Washington should give guarantees
not to leave the nuclear deal again.
Source: Fars News Agency
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Iran nuclear deal talks resume in Vienna amid muted
hopes
29 November ,2021
Negotiators in Vienna resumed talks Monday over
reviving Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, with hopes of quick progress
muted after the arrival of a hard-line new government in Tehran led to a more
than five-month hiatus.
The remaining signatories to the nuclear deal formally
known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — Iran, Russia, China, France,
Germany and Britain — convened at the Palais Coburg, the luxury hotel where the
agreement was signed six years ago.
For the latest headlines, follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
The talks came as Austria is a week into a lockdown
imposed because of a surge of coronavirus cases. Iran's state-run IRNA news
agency reported their start, without elaborating, as journalists remained
outside of the hotel.
The last round of talks, aimed at bringing Iran back
into compliance with the agreement and paving the way for the US to rejoin, was
held in June. Since then, the task has only become more difficult.
The US is not at the table because it unilaterally
pulled out of the deal in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump, who restored
and augmented American sanctions in a campaign of “maximum pressure” to try to
force Iran into renegotiating the pact.
President Joe Biden has signaled that he wants to
rejoin the deal. A US delegation headed by the administration’s special envoy
for Iran, Robert Malley, is participating indirectly in the talks, with
diplomats from the other countries acting as go-betweens.
The nuclear deal saw Iran limit its enrichment of
uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Since the deal's
collapse, Iran now enriches small amounts of uranium up to 60 percent purity —
a short step from weapons-grade levels of 90 percent. Iran also spins advanced
centrifuges barred by the accord and its uranium stockpile now far exceeds the
accord’s limits.
Source: Al Arabiya
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74 years on, Palestinians remain stateless
Ramzi Mahmoud
29.11.2021
GAZA CITY, Palestine
The dream of Palestinians for an independent state
remains farfetched as they mark the 74th anniversary of the partition of their
homeland by the United Nations.
On Nov. 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted
Resolution 181, which called for the partition of Mandatory Palestine into
three territories, including Jewish and Arab states, following the expiry of
Britain's Palestine Mandate.
The first is an Arab state on an area of about
11136.95 square kilometers (4,300 square miles), located on the western Galilee
area in Acre city of the West Bank, and the southern coast extending from
Ashdod city to Rafah, with a part of the desert along the border with Egypt.
The second is a Jewish state on an area of 14762.93
square km (5,700 square miles), located on the coastal plain from Haifa to the
south of Tel Aviv and the eastern Galilee, including the Lake Tiberias, Galilee
Panhandle, and Negev desert.
The third area of Jerusalem and Bethlehem and their
neighboring lands were designated as UN trust territories.
Although Jews formed, at the time, 33% of the total
population and owned only 7% of the land, the resolution gave them a state on
56.5% of the total area of historical Palestine.
Arabs, who owned the majority of the land with 67% of
the population, were only designated 43.5% of the land.
After partition
The UN resolution was met with outright Palestinian
and Arab rejection, and the Arab League decried the resolution as
"illegal".
The resolution was not implemented as the Jewish armed
groups took control of most of the territory of Palestine in 1948 under a plan
that relied on increasing the frequency of attacks on Palestinian cities and
villages.
In the same year, Britain withdrew from Palestine, and
the Jewish armed organizations seized Palestinian lands on which they
established the state of Israel.
Three-quarters of Palestine came under Israeli
control, Jordan ruled the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip came under Egyptian
authority.
In the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, Israel occupied the West
Bank, including East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, and
the Syrian Golan Heights after the defeat of the Arab armies.
Despite the inking of the Oslo Accords between Israel
and Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1993, which subjected some areas
in the Palestinian territories to the control of the Palestinian National
Authority, Israel was still not satisfied with the outcome.
The Jewish state continues to occupy Palestinian land,
expands its settlements, and deprives Palestinians of their most basic rights.
It has imposed a crippling blockade on the Gaza Strip
since 2006 and runs projects to Judaize the occupied city of Jerusalem. It also
raids cities and villages in the occupied West Bank while building a separation
wall in the area.
Israeli and Palestinian estimates indicate that there
are about 650,000 settlers in West Bank settlements, including occupied
Jerusalem, who live in 164 settlements and 116 outposts.
International law regards both the West Bank and East
Jerusalem as occupied territories and considers all Jewish settlement-building
activity there illegal.
No solution in sight
Experts see no hope in the foreseeable future for the
establishment of a Palestinian state.
Talal Okal, a writer and political analyst, said after
all these years, the establishment of a Palestinian state on the pre-1967
borders has become a "farfetched dream."
"There is no room for solutions based on
negotiations that would give the Palestinians an independent state, regardless
of its borders, size, and specifications.” Okal told Anadolu Agency.
Besides holding Israel responsible for the current
Palestinian situation, Okal said no pressure is being exercised on Israel to
grant Palestinians their rights, especially in light of accelerating
Arab-Israeli normalization, inter-Palestinian divisions, and a decline in
international support.
He also noted that the rise of far-right groups to
power in Israel means that no party “can accept political solutions and
negotiations with the Palestinians."
Open option
Okal believes the main option that remains open for
the Palestinians in their quest to establish an independent state is through
“reviving the conflict” with Israel.
While appreciating international solidarity with the
Palestinian cause, he had to contend that it remains a "public relations"
issue that has no real impact on the ground.
Palestinians need to understand that "the Zionist
project is expansionist and colonial, and does not seek merely to establish a
state for the Jews in a specific geographical spot,” Okal said.
"We must go to revive the conflict (with Israel)
again,” he added.
Palestinian reform
Okal rejects the idea of dissolving the Palestinian
Authority just because the two-state solution is not in sight.
In his opinion, the function of the Authority is no
longer limited to being one of the outgrowths of the Oslo Accords, citing its
official diplomatic representation internationally and regionally.
"Let the Palestinian Authority remain as the
actor that bears the responsibility of the Palestinians,” Okal said. “The question
here is what program does this Authority adopt?"
He called for changing the Palestinian Authority's
function first, in addition to rebuilding the PLO, as it is responsible for all
Palestinians inside and outside Palestine.
As for resisting the Israeli occupation, Okal
explained that the issue of resistance needs a discussion about its form and
nature, as "it does not have to be armed."
Source: Anadolu Agency
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https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/74-years-on-palestinians-remain-stateless/2433854
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Southeast Asia
World squash championship cancelled after Malaysia
refused to allow Israeli players
November 30, 2021
KUALA LUMPUR: A major squash tournament in Malaysia
has been cancelled, the sport’s governing body said, after the Muslim-majority
country sparked anger by refusing to grant visas for Israeli players.
It is the latest instance of the Southeast Asian
nation, which has no diplomatic relations with Israel, barring the country’s
athletes.
The World Team Championship for men had been due to
take place in Kuala Lumpur on December 7-12 with 26 squads participating.
But the World Squash Federation (WSF) and Malaysia’s
squash body said that it had been axed because of the "possibility that
some nations would be unable to compete due to the lack of confirmation over
the issuing of visas".
WSF president Zena Wooldridge said sports officials
had sought to "influence the highest authorities of Malaysia to ensure the
ability of all participating teams, including Israel, to enter Malaysia and
compete.
"It is important to WSF that no nation who wishes
to compete misses out on the event."
Israel’s squash association previously said that
countries which participated in a tournament from which Israel was barred would
be closing their eyes to "racism and discrimination".
The association also threatened to turn to the Court
of Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland if the WSF could not resolve the issue.
The WSF said the decision to cancel the event was also
influenced by the new Omicron coronavirus variant, which it fears could affect
travel to Malaysia.
The tournament was earlier this year moved to Malaysia
from New Zealand because of coronavirus-related travel restrictions.
In 2019, Malaysia was stripped of the right to host
the World Para Swimming Championships for threatening to refuse Israeli
athletes.
Source: The News Pakistan
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PAS
lawmaker wants Putrajaya to curb LGBTQ shows on Netflix, but minister says not
possible
30
Nov 2021
BY
SYED JAYMAL ZAHIID
KUALA
LUMPUR, Nov 30 ― A PAS federal lawmaker has asked the government to censor
LGBTQ shows or “sexual content” aired by streaming service provider Netflix.
Dungun
Member of Parliament Wan Hassan Mohd Ramli raised the matter during Question
Time this morning. PAS has long fought for strict punishment against the LGBTQ
community, and have pushed for laws to “ban” them.
Communications
and Multimedia Minister Tan Sri Annuar Musa replied by acknowledging concerns
about the absence of censorship for shows aired on Netflix, but said Malaysian
authorities are powerless to regulate content streamed from abroad.
“To
answer your question, we have to admit that we face difficulty (to regulate)
streaming services including Netflix,” Annuar said.
“Netflix
is an over-the-top service provider that streams internet-based multimedia
content from abroad and many of the service providers are difficult to be
regulated fully,” he added.
Conservatives
have long sought to censor the internet, claiming the platform promotes immoral
behaviour if not regulated. Rights groups have responded by warning that
internet censorship would curb free expression and silence dissent.
Source:
Malay Mail
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PM
Ismail Sabri describes first official visit to Singapore as a success
29
Nov 2021
SINGAPORE,
Nov 29 — Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob today
described his first official visit to Singapore as a success.
He
thanked the Singapore government especially his counterpart Lee Hsien Loong for
giving him a warm welcome filled with a family spirit.
“Ties
between the two countries are very close, as we are neighbours with a long
history,” he told a news conference with the Malaysian media at the end of his
visit.
The
visit, made at the invitation of Lee, is Ismail Sabri’s second to a
neighbouring country after he was sworn in as the ninth prime minister on
August 21 this year.
He
went to Indonesia for a three-day official visit from November 9.
Ismail
Sabri, who arrived here this morning, and Lee had earlier launched the
Vaccinated Travel Lane (VTL) for air and land travel between Malaysia and
Singapore at the Woodlands Checkpoint.
Ismail
Sabri said that at his four-eyed meeting with Lee, they discussed the possible
launch of sea VTL between Tanah Merah and Desaru and a cruise service from
Singapore to Port Klang and Langkawi.
“We
believe the opening of more (travel arrangements) can benefit the whole country
not only in terms of tourism, which has been badly hit by the border closure,
but also trade,” he said.
He
said the opening of the borders with Singapore, which is Malaysia’s largest
trading partner, was expected to have a spillover effect on Johor and nearby
places such as Melaka, which is a popular destination for Singaporeans.
The
prime minister said the category of users for the land VTL might be expanded
after December 23, depending on the impact of the opening of the current first
phase of land VTL.
“This
is being done on a trial basis to see the impact of this opening. We do not
want (Covid-19) cases to increase after this. We will monitor before opening
further.
“If
cases do not increase, we will give more spaces for easing of travel
restrictions involving people of both countries,” he said.
For
now, the land VTL initiative, which allows quarantine-free travel, is only for
vaccinated individuals who are citizens, permanent residents and long-term pass
holders of Malaysia and Singapore.
Asked
if the VTL scheme would be extended to cover other countries, Ismail Sabri said
he hoped to hold discussions with Malaysia’s northern neighbour Thailand.
He
also hoped to create more travel channels like the green travel bubble with
Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea and certain provinces in China where
Covid-19 has been brought under control.
Source:
Malay Mail
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Africa
Morocco
to push for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks: King Mohammed VI
29
November ,2021
Morocco
will push for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, King
Mohammed VI said Monday, almost a year after his country renewed ties with
Israel.
“Morocco
will continue its efforts, building on its position and its excellent relations
with all sides and relevant international actors, to provide the appropriate
conditions for a return to the negotiating table,” the monarch said in a
televised address.
Morocco
renewed official relations with Israel in December last year, two decades after
it cut ties with the outbreak of the second Palestinian intifada or uprising.
The
rapprochement came amid a string of normalization deals between Israel and Arab
countries, brokered by the Trump administration.
In
a speech, delivered on the UN-organized International Day of Solidarity with
the Palestinian People, King Mohammed stressed Morocco’s “total solidarity with
the Palestinian people” and its right to an independent state alongside Israel.
He
called for trust-building efforts and urged both sides “to refrain from actions
that obstruct the peace process.”
Source:
Al Arabiya
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Sudan's
army chief visits border area with Ethiopia following attack
Talal
Ismail
29.11.2021
KHARTOUM,
Sudan
Sudan's
army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan visited his country’s border area with
Ethiopia on Monday, following an attack that killed six soldiers, according to
local media.
Al-Burhan's
visit to Al-Fashqa area comes “to check on the Sudanese soldiers and the
situation on the country’s eastern border,” the Sudan Press news portal said.
The
Sudanese military has yet to issue an official statement on the visit.
The
Sudanese army said Sunday that six soldiers had been killed in an attack in the
disputed Al-Fashqa border area with Ethiopia.
With
a 1,600-kilometer (994-mile) border, Sudan and Ethiopia recently renewed a
dispute on the al-Fashqa Triangle, a decades-long border area lacking definite
demarcation.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
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Somali
premier pledges election transparency amid political tensions
Mohammed
Dhaysane
29.11.2021
MOGADISHU,
Somalia
Somalia's
prime minister vowed Sunday to ensure transparency in the country's ongoing
parliamentary elections as well as to "correct the mistakes" made so
far.
In
a statement after a meeting with opposition presidential candidates in the
capital Mogadishu, Mohamed Hussein Roble sought to ease political tensions over
allegations of a "lack of transparency and blatant violations" in the
polls.
"The
prime minister is taking into account the concerns expressed about the
transparency of the elections by the Union of Candidates, the concern of the
Somali people and the international community and promised that the National
Consultative Assembly would convene to work together to ensure that the
country's elections occur efficiently and correct mistakes," Roble said in
a statement after the meeting.
At
their meeting with Roble, presidential candidates including former presidents
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and Sharif Sheikh Ahmed expressed "serious
concern" over a lack of transparency in the ongoing elections and voiced
their dissatisfaction with the current course of events, according to
government spokesman Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu.
Reassuring
them on the elections' transparency, Roble instructed the Electoral Commission
to carry out its duties in accordance with the agreed electoral procedures,
according to the statement.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
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Europe
Mediterranean
states seek to bolster peace efforts in Palestine, Libya, Syria
Alyssa
McMurtry
30.11.2021
OVIEDO,
Spain
The
Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) called to strengthen efforts to resolve
conflicts that are holding the region back from development and integration.
The
Jordanian and EU co-presidency of the UfM released a joint statement after the
union’s sixth regional forum wrapped up in Barcelona on Monday evening.
The
first point centered on the Israel-Palestine conflict, with the parties
encouraging anything that “achieves comprehensive Middle East peace and to
relaunch effective negotiations to solve the Palestinian Israeli conflict on
the basis of the two-state solution.”
Both
Palestine and Israel are members of the UfM.
While
the statement applauded recent high-level contacts, it also underlined the
importance of not undermining trust with moves like Israel’s push to build
illegal new settlements.
Finding
a political solution to the Libyan crises was another of the union’s key
concerns.
The
statement stressed the importance of holding presidential and parliamentary
elections in December and upholding the 2020 cease-fire agreement, which would
result in the “complete withdrawal of all foreign forces, foreign fighters, and
mercenaries from the Libyan territories.”
Syria,
the only country to have been suspended from the 42-member UfM, was another
pressing issue.
The
forum emphasized the need to keep pushing for a political solution to the
Syrian crisis, while also renewing its commitment to providing humanitarian aid
to Syrians in need.
“The
UfM can contribute to these goals in the Mediterranean region by creating,
through dialogue and cooperation, a political environment that is conducive to
the solution ... of the conflicts and the political tensions affecting
members,” read the statement.
Besides
discussing the conflicts plaguing the Mediterranean, country representatives
also met on the sidelines to review progress on regional integration.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
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EU
intends to continue talks with Taliban after 2-day negotiations
Agnes
Szucs
29.11.2021
BRUSSELS
The
European Union reaffirmed on Monday its willingness to continue talks with the
Taliban to reassure delivery of humanitarian aid to Afghan people after a first
round of negations with the Afghan interim government over the weekend.
“We
will continue the talks, we will continue to engage with the Taliban to be able
to make sure that we can actually provide the humanitarian access to
Afghanistan,” Nabila Massrali, the European Commission’s spokesperson in charge
of foreign affairs, said at a press conference.
“We
will see the actions after these talks,” she added referring to the two-day
negotiations between EU officials and members of the Taliban's interim Afghan
government in Doha, Qatar.
Massrali
also explained that EU officials were currently assessing the possibility of
reopening the bloc’s diplomatic mission in Kabul.
“Once
the security situation is appropriate, we will make sure that we have a
presence there,” she added.
In
a statement released after the end of talks on late Sunday, the European
Commission stressed that the “dialogue does not imply recognition by the EU of
the interim government but is part of EU’s operational engagement, in the
interest of the EU and the Afghan people.”
Both
sides agreed on the necessity to deliver assistance to Afghan people amid the
worsening humanitarian situation with the winter’s arrival.
The
Afghan delegation promised to provide equal access for men, women, and children
to foreign aid and not to tax the assistance.
On
top of humanitarian aid, the EU delegation showed a willingness to channel
substantial financial aid for the direct benefit to Afghan people exclusively
through international organizations to ensure basic public services like
education, healthcare.
The
financial support is strictly conditioned to the fulfillment of the bloc’s five
benchmarks set in September that stipulates, among others, equal access to
education for boys and girls with an internationally recognized curriculum and
minority protection.
Both
parties agreed on the importance of keeping Afghan airports open for which the
Taliban asked international help.
The
Afghan delegation also reiterated that anyone could leave the country if they
wished so.
According
to the statement, they also showed commitment towards rule of law and good
governance, while the EU called on them to form an inclusive government that
reflected “the richness of Afghan society in terms of ethnic, political and
religious affiliation and with both women and men in senior positions, and
which should pave the way for national reconciliation.”
In
line with the EU’s five criteria, the Taliban delegation committed to fight
terrorism and to maintain the respect of human rights in line with their
religious principles.
The
Afghan delegation welcomed diplomatic presence in the country and invited the
EU staff to return while promising to respect international law regarding
diplomatic missions.
The
bloc said security conditions will determine a minimum presence in Kabul, which
would not imply recognition.
Source:
Anadolu Agency
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