NIA Arrests Ophthalmologist, Abdur Rahman, For Developing A Medical and Weaponry-Related Online Application for Islamic State
New Age Islam
News Bureau
19 August 2020
Abdur Rahman, 28, working at
MS Ramaiah Medical College, is accused developing a medical application to help
injured Islamic State cadres in conflict zones
------
• UAE Starts
Crackdown on Opponents of Peace Deal with Israel
• As Bangladesh
Cosies Up to China, New Delhi Looks for Path Correction
• Chinese
Atrocities on Uighur Muslims Continue as Islamic Community Maintains Strategic
Silence
• Facebook
Scandal Should Be Probed by US Congress Say Human Rights Organizations
• Pak Submits
Initial Draft Report to FATF Ahead of Plenary Meet
• Senior
Republican says Europe left US with only one option on Iran arms embargo
India
• NIA Arrests
Ophthalmologist, Abdur Rahman, For Developing A Medical and Weaponry-Related
Online Application for Islamic State
• Masjid-e-Adam
in Godhra Is Now A 50-Bed Covid Care Centre
• Muslim Leaders
to Pant: Punish Those Really Involved in Bengaluru Riots
• Telangana:
Congress launches signature campaign demanding re-construction of 2 mosques, a
temple at secretariat premises
• Pak terrorist
linked to J&K BJP neta’s killing found dead
• As Dhaka holds
talks with Beijing, Foreign Secy meets Hasina
--------
Arab world
• UAE Starts
Crackdown on Opponents of Peace Deal with Israel
• Egypt’s
Parliament Passes Law Shielding Sex Crime Victims’ Identities
• Israel’s
Mossad spy chief visits UAE for security talks
• Bahrain to set
up committee to counter money laundering and terrorism
• UN-backed
court: One defendant out of four guilty in 2005 murder of ex-Lebanon PM
• Lebanon tribunal
convicts Hezbollah member Salim Jamil Ayyash for Hariri assassination
--------
South Asia
• As Bangladesh
Cosies Up to China, New Delhi Looks for Path Correction
• Three Years
On, Nearly 7,30,000 Rohingya Muslim Refugees Live in Bangladesh Camps
• Key Daesh
member killed in Afghanistan: NDS
• Rocket attacks
during independence eve kill or injure 19 in Kabul
• Taliban deny
US report of Iran bounty for attacks on Americans
--------
Southeast Asia
• Chinese
Atrocities on Uighur Muslims Continue as Islamic Community Maintains Strategic
Silence
• Religious
affairs minister appointed member of Muslim Council of Elders
• Waste of
resources, Malaysia's police chief says, as it investigates a new sodomy
allegation
• Wife of
Indonesia’s Most-Wanted Militant Arrested
--------
North America
• Facebook
Scandal Should Be Probed by US Congress Say Human Rights Organizations
• US to submit
complaint to UNSC on Iran nuclear deal: Sources
• Bolton dodges
question on ties with anti-Iran terrorists MEK, calls for 'regime change'
• Ron Paul warns
Trump's failed Iran policy may lead to war
• Russia
rejected US anti-Iran text after 19 months of negotiation: State Dept. official
--------
Pakistan
• Pak Submits
Initial Draft Report to FATF Ahead of Plenary Meet
• No Recognition
of Israel Unless Palestine Freed: Imran
• Pakistan
Taliban reunite with two splinter groups as army hails battle success
• Pakistan army
chief meets Saudi officials amid strained ties
• WHO wants to
use Peshawar police hospital as focal point in medical emergencies
• MQM-P accuses
Sindh CM of ‘sabotaging’ proposed committee on Karachi
--------
Mideast
• Senior
Republican says Europe left US with only one option on Iran arms embargo
• Rumours swirl
about ex-president as potential Erdogan challenger
• Iran Thanks
Putin for UNSC Meeting Offer, But Says Initiative Unlikely to Break Ground
• Official:
Results of Human Trials of Iran's COVID-19 Vaccine Out by November
• Iran
Categorically Rejects CNN’s Claim of Paying Bounties to Taliban to Target US
Forces
• Israel bombs
Gaza, warns Hamas is was risking ‘war’
• US Must
Swiftly End Catastrophic Presence In Afghanistan: Iran
--------
Africa
• Turkey, Qatar
agree to provide GNA mercenaries with Libyan citizenship: Sources
• Mali’s
president and prime minister held by mutinous troops
• Burkina Faso’s
new conflict front: Jihadists against jihadists
• Jordan
reiterates two-state solution as ‘sole path’ to peace
• Somalia: UN
condemns ‘brazen’ terrorist attack on beachside hotel
• Attacks Targeting
Aid Workers in Niger Are Latest in Worrying Spike
--------
Europe
• Brain Damaged
London Bridge Terror Victim Sues Attackers’ Estates
• Former Hardline
Home Sec Sajid Javid Returns to Corporate World
Compiled by New
Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/nia-arrests-ophthalmologist-abdur-rahman/d/122665
--------
NIA Arrests
Ophthalmologist, Abdur Rahman, For Developing A Medical and Weaponry-Related
Online Application for Islamic State
18 Aug 2020
Abdur Rahman, 28, working at
MS Ramaiah Medical College, is accused developing a medical application to help
injured Islamic State cadres in conflict zones
------
The National
Investigation Agency on Tuesday arrested an ophthalmologist at a college in
Bengaluru for allegedly “furthering activities” of Islamic State Khorasan
Province, a branch of the Islamic State terrorist group, The Print reported.
The NIA said
Abdur Rahman was developing a medical and weaponry-related online application
for Islamic State members. “He was in the process of developing a medical
application for helping the injured ISIS cadres in the conflict zones and a
weaponry-related application for the benefit of ISIS fighters,” an NIA
statement said, according to News18.
The
investigation agency raided three premises in Bengaluru after arresting Rahman
and seized digital devices, a mobile phone and a laptop containing allegedly
incriminating material.
The agency
officials said that Rahman had visited an Islamic State medical camp in Syria
in 2014 and stayed with the group. “During interrogation, arrested accused
Abdur Rahman confessed that he was conspiring with accused Jahanzaib Sami and
other Syria-based ISIS operatives on secure messaging platforms to further ISIS
activities,” the NIA statement said.
The MS Ramaiah
College, where Rahman studied and worked, denied any knowledge of his
activities outside the campus. “He was admitted to the college in 2017 under
the government quota, through the Karnataka Examinations Authority,” a college
statement said. “The college is not aware of his activities outside the
campus.”
Rahman was
arrested in the same case that the Special Cell of the Delhi Police registered
in March, after the arrest of Jahanzaib Sami Wani and Hina Bashir Beigh, a
Kashmiri couple from Jamia Nagar in the national Capital. The couple allegedly
had links with the Islamic State Khorasan Province and were involved in
“subversive and anti-national activities”. Further investigations led the NIA
to Sadiya Anwar Sheikh and Nabeel Siddick Khatri, who they alleged were
carrying out subversive activities in Pune under the garb of anti-Citizenship
Amendment Act protests.
The NIA will
produce Rahman in a Delhi court and seek his custody to interrogate him.
The Khorasan
unit of the Islamic State had attempted a suicide attack in India in 2018 but
failed. This unit of the terrorist group, formed in 2015, operates mostly in
Afghanistan and Pakistan but has now begun to branch out to other parts of
South Asia.
https://scroll.in/latest/970744/nia-arrests-opthalmologist-from-bengaluru-college-for-alleged-involvement-with-islamic-state
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UAE Starts
Crackdown on Opponents of Peace Deal with Israel
Aug 18, 2020
Palestinians take part in a
protest against the United Arab Emirates' deal with Israel to normalize
relations, in Nablus, West Bank, August 14, 2020. Credit: RANEEN SAWAFTA/
REUTERS
----
Sources in the
UAE were quoted by the Younews news website as saying that 7 people, including
two Jordanians, 2 Palestinians, 2 UAE citizens and another person whose
nationality is not known yet have been arrested by the security forces for
showing opposition to the recent peace deal with Israel.
US President
Donald Trump on Thursday announced a deal brokered by his government between
Israel and the UAE which he said would lead to full normalization of ties
between the two.
Critics see the
deal as the latest attempt by Trump to save his presidential campaign against
the Democrat Joe Biden.
Palestinians
have reacted with shock and dismay after Trump unveiled an agreement between
the United Arab Emirates and Israel to normalize ties.
The deal pledges
full normalisation of relationships between the two countries in the areas of
security, tourism, technology and trade in return for suspending Israel's annexation
plans in the West Bank.
Both the
Palestinian leadership and public were caught by surprise when the announcement
came on Thursday.
"We
absolutely had no prior knowledge of this agreement," Ahmed Majdalani, the
Palestinian Authority's (PA) minister of social affairs, told Al-Jazeera,
adding, "The timing and speed of reaching this agreement were surprising,
especially that it came at a critical moment in the Palestinian struggle."
Former PA
minister Munib al-Masri noted Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who ruled Abu
Dhabi for more than 30 years before his death in 2004, had always been a strong
supporter of the Palestinians.
"The late
Sheikh Zayed was a dear brother to me, I knew how much he was proud of his
support for Palestine… I never imagined that in my lifetime I would see the day
in which the UAE would simply sell the Palestinians out for the sake of
normalisation," al-Masri said, noting, "It's very shameful. I can't
believe it until now."
Other
Palestinian officials announced though the news came abruptly, it was not much
of a surprise.
"We were
not surprised that much because the Emirati army was never on the borders ready
to fight Israel," said Mustafa al-Barghouti, leader of the Palestinian
National Initiative and member of the PA parliament.
"We've been
seeing recent strange moves by the UAE such as sending direct flights to
Israel, and there were leaks of secret accords between the two in terms of
scientific and economic cooperation. It is clear that these were preliminary
steps to absorb yesterday's shock," he added.
The PA and all
Palestinian factions, including Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, issued official
statements denouncing the UAE-Israel agreement. Palestinian leaders who spoke
to Al-Jazeera called it a "stab in the back".
"We already
knew that there has been normalisation going under the table, but to formalise
and legalise it that way at this critical moment is shocking. It's a stab in
our back and the back of all Arab nations," stated Majida al-Masri, former
PA minister of social affairs.
Al-Barghouti
emphasised the deal "doesn't introduce any change or progress, it's far
from being genuine peace".
"This is an
attempt to enforce the 'Deal of the Century' that aims to liquidate Palestinian
national rights, it represents a denial of Palestinian, Arab and Islamic
rights," he continued.
Palestinian
leaders stated the deal was "a free gift to Israel" and was made to
help the re-election of Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
"The UAE's
position, in terms of its timing and essence, can only be understood as giving
Israel leverage for free," said Wasel Abu Yousef, member of the PLO's
Executive Committee and leader of the Palestine Liberation Front, adding,
"There's no reasonable justification for it except that it gives more
power to the occupation and increases its crimes against the
Palestinians."
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990528000851
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As Bangladesh
Cosies Up To China, New Delhi Looks For Path Correction
Seema Guha
19 August 2020
Use of issue of illegal
influx of Bangladeshi immigrants as an election plank by the ruling
dispensation harms ties with a friendly country.
------
Bangladesh Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina has been a true friend to India. Ever since she came to
power, she has been sensitive to New Delhi’s security and strategic concerns.
India could not have hoped for a better neighbour.
Violence and
terrorism in Assam have come down, thanks largely to Hasina’s generosity. One
of the first acts of her government, when it came to power in 2009, was to hand
over leaders of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) operating out of
Bangladesh back to India. Insurgent groups of the northeast had found it easy
to slip across the border to escape the Indian security forces. All insurgent
camps were shut down and unlike the previous governments in Dhaka, Hasina made
it plain that anti-India forces were not welcome. Pakistan’s Inter-Services
Intelligence (ISI) also got short shrift in Bangladesh. But today, China is
spreading its wings in Bangladesh, literally India’s backyard. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan was on
the phone with Hasina in an attempt to mend fences with her. The opportunity
for China and Pakistan was provided by the ruling party's domestic agenda.
Foreign
Secretary Harsh Shringla has rushed to Dhaka on fears of growing Chinese
interest in Bangladesh. Earlier Beijing announced tariff exception for 97
percent of exports from Bangladesh. During the pandemic, China sent out a
medical team to assist the government. Bangladesh has also allowed a Chinese
company to conduct human trials for a vaccine that it is testing. All this was
keenly followed by New Delhi. But alarm bells rang out with China’s
announcement of USD one billion dollar for a project on the Teesta river. Ironically,
India and Bangladesh have had major problems about sharing of Teesta waters.
During UPA rule,
former prime minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Dhaka in 2011 when a deal was
to be signed, West Bengal chief minister put her foot down, and no agreement
has so far materialised.
The foreign
secretary flew to Dhaka on Tuesday and met Prime Minister Hasina Wednesday
afternoon. He is carrying a message from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Shringla
was India’s high commissioner to Bangladesh before he moved to Washington on a
short stint and returned to head the ministry. Shringla knows Bangladesh well
and has a good equation with all the top brass of the ruling Awami League. He would also hold talks with foreign minister
A.K. Abdul Momen and other senior ministers.
Momen had some time ago complained about the demeaning way a section of
the Indian press portrayed Bangladesh.
Fault Lies With
India
Much of the
fault in the downturn in ties lies with India. Use of issue of illegal influx
of Bangladeshi immigrants as an election plank by the ruling dispensation harms
ties with a friendly country. It shows
little concern for India’s strategic interests. But the ruling BJP, including
its powerful home minister Amit Shah, has flagged this as a major election
issue. Shah has earlier dubbed Bangladeshi migrants as “termites”. Dhaka had
said not a word at that time. Hasina’s government had also not protested the
scrapping of article 370 and the crackdown on Kashmir. But Assam’s National
Register of Citizens and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) are major
concerns.
First the CAA.
Through this amendment, India decided to fast track citizenship for minorities facing
religious persecution in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangaldesh. Hindus, Sikhs,
Christians, Buddhists could get refuge in India. All but Muslims would be
admitted from these three countries.
While introducing the bill in the Lok Sabha, home minister Amit Shah
spoke of religious persecution in these three countries. Realising that the
Hasina government would be offended, Shah clarified in the Rajya Sabha that he
was not referring to the current situation in Bangladesh but of previous
military rulers of that country. The Awami League government prides itself in
being a modern democratic nation not defined by religion. Hindus in Bangladesh
today do not fear persecution. So lumping Bangladesh with Pakistan and
Afghanistan certainly did not please Dhaka. But again it showed restrain. There
were no public comments.
Assam’s problem
on influx from Bangladesh is perennial. There was a massive popular movement in
the early ‘80s but the agitation did not affect ties with Dhaka. Now, however,
with the NRC and loose talk of pushing back foreigners back to Bangladesh is
naturally of concern. Though India has repeatedly assured Dhaka that the NRC is
a domestic issue, the worry is many of the Bengali-speaking Muslims placed in
armed camps could try to escape prison and find their way to Bangladesh. The
Delhi riots as well as the general anti-Muslim trend in India, has disturbed
many citizens of that country. Students had threatened massive protests when
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was scheduled to visit Dhaka to take part in the
birth centenary celebrations of Mujibur Rahman, the founder of Bangladesh. The
visit was cancelled thanks to the pandemic.
India’s constant
hammering of illegal immigration from Bangladesh is making the normally
friendly Bangladeshi citizens angry. It is not just the opposition but
supporters of the Awami League who are disappointed with India. Shringla will
do his best and perhaps control the slide, but with elections in West Bengal
slated for early next year the Bengali-speaking Muslims and illegal influx will
again come up in a big way.
https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/news-analysis-as-bangladesh-cosies-up-to-china-new-delhi-looks-for-path-correction/358939
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Chinese
atrocities on Uighur Muslims continue as Islamic community maintains strategic
silence
Edited By: Arun
Kumar Chaubey
Aug 19, 2020
New Delhi:
China's Xinjiang province is known to have a majority population of Muslims,
but people here are devoid of every right to follow their religion. The state
is 1.5 times the size of Pakistan and 12 times more than Bangladesh, and it
also borders eight countries, including India, along with 5 other nations where
Islam is the largest religion.
Muslims here,
known as Uighur Muslims, are not allowed to grow their beards or observe fast
in the month of Ramadan, women are not allowed to wear a burqa, and they cannot
celebrate their religious festivals. The DNA report will reveal several other
facts in today's analysis and will also let you know why Islamic countries
maintain a strategic silence against these atrocities while they have waged a
war in other parts of the world in the name of Muslim brotherhood.
Uighur Muslims
in Xinjiang province, comprising 50 percent of the population, are considered
to be from eastern Turkistan. Till 1949, 90 percent of the population here was
from Turkish origin while descendants of the Han dynasty were less than 4
percent. In the ongoing genocide for the last 70 years, the population of
Turkish Uighur Muslims is now reduced to 55 percent while Han Chinese people
have increased to 45 percent.
China has not
only targeted the Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang, but it has also kept 3 million
Muslims of Kazakh, Kyrgyz, and Turkish descent in different concentration
camps. Islamic community across the world has not opened its mouth against this
atrocity in China while they were enraged over cartoons on Prophet Mohammed
published in a Paris newspaper Charlie Hebdo and they attacked the newspaper's
office in 2015 for insulting Islam.
Muslims of
Xinjiang have been continuously saying that they are a free nation, but China
has crushed their voice. The people of East Turkistan are also struggling for
the last long time, but China has trampled all the protests, as it is now
suppressing the voice of democracy in Hong Kong, or had suppressed Tibet.
China had
demolished mosques in Xinjiang as it wants to destroy the identity of Muslims
living there. Out of about 20 million Muslims living in China, 10 million are
Uighur Muslims. According to reports, so far 18 lakh Uighur Muslims have been
imprisoned in China, 10 lakh Muslims have been kept in more than 1000
concentration camps, which are called re-education camps.
In these camps,
Uighur Muslims undergo all kinds of atrocities and their organs are reportedly
smuggled. Muslim women are also raped, men are forced into sterilization, and
children are separated from their parents.
In the last
three years, 10 to 15 thousand mosques have been demolished in Xinjiang
province, according to the Uighur Human Rights project report. But Muslims
across the world, including India, have failed to raise voice against
atrocities on Uighur Muslims of China.
Many people in
India protested when a new law on citizenship law was passed, and recently
people belonging to the Muslim community resorted to violent protests in
Bengaluru to express their anger against a Facebook post on Prophet Mohammed.
In the year
2017-2018, when Rohingya Muslims were expelled from Myanmar, it was criticized
all over the world, but on the question of atrocities on Muslims in China, even
the United Nations avoided the criticism of China.
Muslims in China
apparently cannot raise their voices, but countries that have raised the banner
of Islam are also silent on this matter. Saudi Arabia, which considers itself
to be the leader of Islamic countries, has never spoken on this issue.
Turkey, which
wants to replace Saudi Arabia in the Islamic world, has rather preferred to
send Uighur Muslims to China if they land upon its territory. Pakistan also
avoids the issue of Uighur Muslims and maintains a stoic silence. Malaysia,
which vociferously raises Kashmir issue along with Pakistan on global forums,
has never flayed China stating that China never responds to criticism.
On the other
hand, Iran has stated that China is rather serving Islam by suppressing the
voice of these Muslims.
Notably, 24% of
the world's population, 180 crores, resides in 50 countries where Islam is the
largest religion, while believers in Christianity are 250 crores. Islam,
therefore, is the second-largest religion after Christianity, but 180 million
Muslims never speak against China.
The reasons are
obvious: Most of the Islamic countries are afraid of China, which has virtually
bought many of these nations through it monetary power. China has invested Rs
4.47 lakh crore in Pakistan. In 2017, China had signed a deal of Rs 5.20 lakh
crore with Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia.
Similarly, China
is likely to invest Rs 29 lakh crore in Iran, while Malaysia's 45 percent of
the total foreign direct investment (FDI) is from China. Not only this, China
has also saved the sinking economy of Turkey. China is also the top nation to
import oil from Gulf countries, and this primarily is the key reason behind the
silence of these countries.
Among the
nations that have agreed to be part of China's One Belt One Road project, 30
are Islamic countries.
https://zeenews.india.com/india/chinese-atrocities-on-uighur-muslims-continue-as-islamic-community-maintains-strategic-silence-2303671.html
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Facebook scandal
should be probed by US Congress say human rights organizations
18 Aug 2020
Washington, DC
(August 17, 2020)/Press Release: The “Coalition to Stop Genocide in India”, a
broad coalition of Indian American and US based civil rights organizations and
activists today urged the US House of Representatives to launch a Congressional
probe into the functioning of Facebook and the organization’s role in amplifying
hate and bigotry around the world, especially in South Asia. There exists ample
evidence in the public domain that hateful rhetoric online especially by
influential groups and individuals, has led to actual violence that has
destroyed countless lives in India, Myanmar and other countries.
The coalition
has also called on Facebook to fire Ms. Ankhi Das, the company’s policy chief
in India, as an immediate remedial step. By blocking punitive action against
some Facebook accounts belonging to high ranking politicians from the ruling
Bharatiya Janata Party, Ms. Das allowed the accounts to continue their hateful
and violent rhetoric, acting as an enabler for them to incite hate and mass
violence against social and religious minorities.
According to the
Delhi Minorities Commission Fact Finding Report on the Delhi pogrom of February
2020, many of the killings were coordinated over WhatsApp, a messaging app
owned by Facebook. A hair-raising news report by online magazine Quint
documented how Facebook live sessions were used to make open calls to target
for Muslims and Dalits. Another report by The Wire, has highlighted how
violence against Dalits, Adivasis, and other dissenters was organized using one
of the Facebook platforms.
Outrage and
calls for a public accountability process of Facebook’s role in knowingly
enabling the incitement of mass violence in India have grown since the Wall
Street Journal’s incisive expose, titled “Inside Facebook, Hate-Speech Rules
Collide with Indian Politics.” Published on Friday, August 14, 2020 on the eve
of India’s 74th Independence Day, the Wall Street Journal article unequivocally
establishes Facebook India as actively complicit in fanning the flames of
Islamophobia and caste atrocities in a quest for chasing markets and money at
any expense. Facebook executives, most notably Ms. Das in India, knowingly
ignored the company’s hate speech policy and allowed for openly Islamophobic
posts, including those inciting to violence.
Facebook’s
corrupt enabling of hate speech and Islamophobia has been studied and
extensively documented and actually goes far beyond what was highlighted in the
Wall Street Journal article. According to a 2019 report by Equality Labs,
Islamophobic content accounted for about 40 percent of content on Facebook.
This was followed by casteism (13 percent) and gender/sexuality hate speech (13
percent) as the two next largest groups along with disinformation. 43% of hate
speech Facebook initially reported was restored within 90 days and 100% of the
restored posts were Islamophobic.
The WSJ report
highlights how individuals and groups who were flagged “for promoting or
participating in violence” by Facebook’s internal processes were allowed to
stay on the platform, although Facebook’s rules required such entities to be
expelled. In internal communications, Ms. Ankhi Das justified overruling
concerns raised by Facebook’s employees, as necessary in order to prevent
hurting the company’s relationship with India’s ruling party, and consequently
its business prospects in the country. In addition, Ms. Das played a role in
suppressing information that hateful content Facebook did remove from the
platform was tied to the BJP.
“We welcome the
scrutiny into the scandal announced by India’s Parliamentary Standing Committee
on Information Technology,” said Ms. Sana Qutbuddin, Director of Advocacy at
Indian American Muslim Council. “However, a full extent of the corruption
within Facebook can only be gauged through a Congressional probe launched by
the US House of Representatives,” added Ms. Qutbuddin.
“While the rot
may run deep, especially within Facebook’s corporate offices in India, firing
Ms. Ankhi Das would be the right first step Facebook needs to take in order to
demonstrate accountability,” said Mr. Pawan Singh, director of the Organization
for Minorities in India.
Facebook was
also found abetting post COVID-19 Islamophobia in India. According to the Wall
Street Journal report, Das’s team also took “no action” after BJP politicians
posted inflammatory content falsely accusing Muslims of intentionally spreading
the coronavirus.
A 2019 report by
the nonprofit activist network Avaaz accused Facebook of having become a
“megaphone for hate” against Muslims in the northeastern Indian state of Assam
— where nearly two million people, many of them Muslims, have just been
stripped of citizenship by the far-right Hindu nationalist government of Prime
Minister Narendra Modi.
Following
Facebok’s pivotal role platforming hate-speech and violent actors in the
Rohingya genocide, the company admitted its part in inciting violence and
stated they would do more to provide resources in order to address the abuse of
its platform. “Everything is done through Facebook in Myanmar,” added Yanghee
Lee, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Myanmar had observed in 2018. “I’m afraid
that Facebook has now turned into a beast, and not what it originally
intended.”
Additionally, as
Facebook’s on-going role in knowingly permitting and advancing hate speech is
exposed amidst an atmosphere where minorities and caste oppressed communities
incur routine violence; the United Nations and the European Union should
closely monitor Facebook’s role in furthering hate speech and disinformation.
Regulators in countries around the world need to act on the information and hold
Facebook accountable, through fines and criminal prosecution if necessary, for
colluding with genocidal entities working to further mass violence.
Facebook was
also accused by several independent journalists of censoring political content
ahead of 2019 general elections by temporarily suspending accounts, labeling
news as “spam”, and not permitting news organisations and civil society to
promote their original content and investigative stories that would cause
damage to the BJP government.
“Online hate has
real world repercussions on the lives of millions of people. We urge civil
society organizations around the world to join in demanding accountability and
implementation of stern processes for monitoring hate speech,” said Mr. Raja
Swamy of Coalition Against Fascism in India.
The Coalition to
Stop Genocide in India includes dozens of organizations, including Indian
American Muslim Council (IAMC),Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), Coalition
Against Fascism in India,Boston Coalition, Organization for Minorities in India
(OFMI), South Asia Solidarity Initiative, Ambedkar Association of North America
(AANA), Ambedkar King Study Circle (AKSC), Council for Minority Rights in India
(CMRI), India American Center for Social Justice (IACSJ), North American Indian
Muslim Association (NAIMA), Ambedkar International Mission, Coalition of
Seattle Indian Americans, Guru Ravidas Sabha, Periyar International USA,
Ambedkar International Mission Society, Canada, Students Against Hindutva
Ideology (SAHI), Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR), International Soceity for
Peace and Justice, India Civil Watch International, Free GN Saibaba Coalition
and Alliance for Secular and Democratic South Asia.
The “Coalition
to Stop Genocide in India” is committed to ensuring that American institutions
and discourse are safeguarded from the virulent Hindutva ideology. To that end,
the coalition will continue to expose not only Hindutva front organizations in
the US but also the role of US based corporations in enabling the human rights
abuses and religious freedom violations in India.
https://www.milligazette.com/news/8-international/33660-facebook-scandal-should-be-probed-us-congress-say-human-rights-organizations/
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Pak submits
initial draft report to FATF ahead of plenary meet
Aug 18, 2020
ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan has submitted its initial draft report to the joint group of Financial
Action Task Force (FATF), showing compliance of the remaining 13 points out of
27 action points pertaining to terror funding, ahead of the plenary meet
scheduled for October, The News International reported on Tuesday.
Top official
sources said that Pakistan would share its updated version of the progress
report to the FATF review group in the first week of September. The first draft
was sent to the FATF on August 6.
"A face to
face virtual meeting of FATF review group is scheduled to take place from
September 14 to 21 where Pakistauthorities will be given an opportunity to
defend their position with full force," a top official was quoted as
saying.
In the FATF plenary
meet, it would be decided whether Pakistan will be continued to be kept in the
grey list or get promoted or demoted to blacklist after verifying the
compliance on the majority of the 27-point action plan, the official said.
Federal minister
for industries Hammad Azhar, who is also in charge of FATF issues, expressed
hope that Pakistan would be declared largely compliant on at least 11 action
points. He said Islamabad would have to evaluate simultaneously on account of
Mutual Evaluation Report (MER) by Asia Pacific Group (APG), according to The
News International.
In June 2018,
Pakistan was placed in the grey list by the FATF and has been retained in that
category since then, after the global anti-terror financial watchdog lambasted
Islamabad over its lacklustre response in curbing terror funding on its soil.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/pak-submits-initial-draft-report-to-fatf-ahead-of-plenary-meet/articleshow/77610825.cms
--------
Senior
Republican says Europe left US with only one option on Iran arms embargo
Joseph Haboush
17 August 2020
A senior US
Republican senator Monday reprimanded European allies for standing with Iran’s
“Death to America regime,” days after Washington’s efforts to extend the arms
embargo on Tehran failed at UN Security Council vote.
Senator Ted Cruz
said that the US was now left with enforcing the snapback mechanism as the only
option to prevent the arms embargo from expiring.
For all the
latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
“It’s time for
the United States to finally and irreversibly end what remains of the
disastrous deal and the benefits that Iran gets from it by invoking the
snapback mechanism described in the deal’s United Nations resolution,"
Cruz said in a statement.
The snapback
would require Iran to suspend all nuclear enrichment-related and reprocessing
activities, including research and development, and ban imports of anything
that could contribute to those activities or to the development of nuclear
weapon delivery systems.
It would
reimpose the arms embargo, ban Iran from developing ballistic missiles capable
of delivering nuclear weapons and reimpose targeted sanctions on dozens of
individuals and entities. Countries also would be urged to inspect shipments to
and from Iran and authorized to seize any banned cargo.
For the snapback
to be triggered, the US would have to submit a complaint about Iran breaching
the nuclear deal to the Security Council.
The council
would then have to vote within 30 days on a resolution to continue Iran’s
sanctions relief. If such a resolution is not put forward by the deadline, all
UN sanctions in place before the 2015 nuclear deal would be automatically
reimposed.
After Friday's
failed vote, US President Donald Trump already said that he would trigger the
snapback of sanctions at the UN.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/08/18/Senior-Republican-says-Europe-left-US-with-only-one-option-on-Iran-arms-embargo.html
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India
Masjid-e-Adam in
Godhra Is Now A 50-Bed Covid Care Centre
by Kamal Saiyed
August 18, 2020
Interiors of a
mosque where prayers echoed five times a day and the Islamic Study Centre
associated to it where children would attend classes regularly are not the same
anymore. The ground floor of Masjid-e-Adam in Godhra is now a 50-bed Covid care
centre, under the care of Godhra Civil Hospital.
The facility was
set up following a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the district
collector of Panchmahals and the trust of Masjid-e Adam. Out of total medical
staffers at the Centre, fifty percent staff is from Godhra civil hospital,
while local medical professionals from the community also pitch in.
The facility has
patients from various villages of Godhra, Dahod and Jhalod taluka of the district
availing treatment free of cost. Part of the mosque is open for devotees with
strict enforcement of Covid-19 guidelines.
District
Collector of Panchmahals, Amit Arora said, “There was a need for a dedicated
Covid Care Centre in Godhra. When the proposal came to us, we sanctioned it. We
are getting an average of 20 patients daily.”
The two-storey
Masjid-e-Adam was constructed by residents of Mujawar road in Godhra five years
ago with donations from trust members for daily namaz offerings and to run an
Islamic Study Centre (madrasa).
Following the
Covid-19 lockdown, the mosque and the madrasa were shut as per state government
guidelines. However, the mosque reopened during Unlock-2.
Trustee of
Masjid-e-Adam, Ishaq Patel, said, “After prayers on Friday (before the Covid-19
outbreak), even the madrasa hall used to be filled with people for prayers. The
hall has been used for Islamic studies for children in the area. However, in
view of the pandemic, we decided to turn the hall into a Covid care centre.”
The facility has
a separate ward for women and includes five BiPap (Bilevel Positive Airway
Pressure) facilities with 16 beds connected to oxygen lines. At present, there
are 50 patients with mild to moderate Covid-19 symptoms at the centre, with
authorities saying that patients are taken in irrespective of their caste or
religion.
The hospital has
two MD doctors, three MBBS doctors, seven BAMS and DHMS doctors, 25 nurses and
other staffers. Patients are provided food by the Al Hayat Trust, formed by
local doctors and members of the mosque.
Dr Zuber Mamji,
secretary of the trust, said, “There was a need for (another) hospital as the
civil hospital had only 100 beds. A few days ago, 150 beds were increased by
local authorities. Patients first come to us and once they are examined, we
take them to civil hospital for Covid-19 testing and treatment at the centre.
We refer severe cases to the civil hospital. The treatment is given free of
cost at the centre.”
“Till date, we
have attended to 200 patients not only from Godhra, but also other villages,
talukas and other districts, including Anand. Majority of the patients have
fully recovered and were discharged. Only one patient died here so far,” he
added.
https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/ahmedabad/godhra-mosque-is-now-a-50-bed-covid-care-centre-6560276/
--------
Muslim leaders
to Pant: Punish those really involved in Bengaluru riots
19th August 2020
BENGALURU: A
delegation of Muslim leaders, including Rajya Sabha MP Syed Naseer Hussain,
Shantinagar MLA N A Haris, MLC C M Ibrahim, Narasimharaja MLA Tanveer Sait,
KPCC working president Saleem Ahmed and 28 other organisation heads submitted a
memorandum to Bengaluru Police Commissioner Kamal Pant on Tuesday, petitioning
that “innocents” should not be punished in connection with the Kaval Byrasandra
riots.
They urged the
commissioner to release innocents if they have been picked up by police. Haris
told TNIE, “People there are living in great difficulty and are unable to get
their daily needs because of the curfew-like situation. Police should provide
details of those arrested to the families. No innocent person should be picked
up.’’ MP Hussain said, “We condemn the vandalism and have asked police to take
action against those who are really involved, and also relax curfew. We urged
the government to probe the delay in registering an FIR.”
https://www.newindianexpress.com/states/karnataka/2020/aug/19/muslim-leaders-to-pant-punish-those-really-involved-in-bengaluru-riots-2185404.html
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Telangana:
Congress launches signature campaign demanding re-construction of 2 mosques, a
temple at secretariat premises
Aug 18, 2020
HYDERABAD: The
Congress members led by former minister Mohammed Ali Shabbir on Tuesday
launched a signature campaign from Mallepally here demanding re-construction of
the two mosques and a temple at the same site in the secretariat compound.
“Chief minister
K Chandrasekhar Rao has hurt the sentiments of both Muslims and Hindus by
demolishing their places of worship. A vague and misleading picture of the new
secretariat complex design has been circulated to the media. The CM should
clarify why the design of the new secretariat building including its internal
details was not placed in the public domain so far. Secretariat is a public
building and people have a right to know everything about it. KCR can maintain
secrecy if he is constructing his own house. But he cannot keep the information
pertaining to the secretariat a confidential affair as it is being constructed
with public money," Shabbir Ali said.
The Congress
leader recalled that both the mosques in the secretariat were renovated when he
was the minister in the cabinet of the then chief minister YS Rajashekhara
Reddy in the undivided State.
Shabbir Ali said
more than two mosques have been demolished since the KCR-government came into
office. “Masjid-e-Ek Khana, a heritage structure in Amberpet, was demolished
last year in the name of road expansion. Despite several assurances, the State
Government has not re-constructed the mosque at the same place,” he said.
He charged CM
KCR of acting like the head of "T-RSS government" and alleged that
the CM has been cheating the Muslim community since beginning. “KCR came to
power by promising 12% reservations to them in jobs and education within four
months after coming to power. KCR not only forgot this promise, but now he is
openly hurting the religious sentiments of Muslim community, he alleged.
Shabbir Ali
demanded that CM KCR immediately order the reconstruction of two mosques and a
temple at the same site in the secretariat. He warned that the Congress would
intensify the agitation.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/hyderabad/telangana-congress-launches-signature-campaign-demanding-re-construction-of-2-mosques-a-temple-at-secretariat-premises/articleshow/77618098.cms
--------
Pak terrorist
linked to J&K BJP neta’s killing found dead
Aug 19, 2020
A soldier, who
was critically injured in Monday’s anti-terror operation in Kashmir’s Baramulla
district, succumbed at Army hospital in Srinagar on Tuesday, taking the total
death toll in the encounter to eight, reports Saleem Pandit.
An SPO, a
soldier, two CRPF constables and three Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists were killed
in Monday’s firefight. The security forces destroyed a terrorist hideout and
retrieved the body of Pakistani terrorist Usman, a defence spokesperson said.
Usman was
involved in the killing of BJP leader Waseem Bari and his father and brother at
Bandipora on July 8 this year, Vijay Kumar, Inspector-General of Police (IGP),
Kashmir said.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/pak-terrorist-linked-to-jk-bjp-netas-killing-found-dead/articleshow/77624722.cms
--------
As Dhaka holds
talks with Beijing, Foreign Secy meets Hasina
by Shubhajit Roy
August 19, 2020
ON A two-day
visit to Bangladesh at a time that Dhaka is in talks with Beijing for an almost
USD 1 billion loan regarding the Teesta river, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla
on Tuesday met Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and discussed “security-related
issues of mutual interest”.
Sources
described their meeting as “excellent”. Receiving her first overseas guest
since the Covid-19 pandemic began, Hasina is said to have “greatly appreciated
PM Narendra Modi’s gesture in sending someone to touch base and convey how the
two sides could take their relationship forward”.
Sources said the
two sides also discussed proposals to facilitate travel for business, official
and medical reasons.
A Joint
Consultative Commission might meet soon to oversee the relationship, especially
projects. Both sides emphasised the importance of enhancing connectivity,
taking steps for revival of the economy post-Covid, cooperating on measures to
fight the pandemic including therapeutics and vaccine, as well as discussed
joint commemoration of Mujib Barsho (to mark the birth centenary of Sheikh
Mujibur Rehman).
Sources said
Hasina raised the Rohingya issue and the possibility of their safe repatriation
to Myanmar.
On Wednesday,
Shringla is expected to meet Bangladesh Foreign Minister A K Abdul Momen and
Foreign Secretary Masud bin Momen.
India and
Bangladesh have not been able to sign the Teesta water-sharing agreement for
the past nine years, with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee refusing
to sign off on it. Last week, Bangladesh’s Ministry of Water Resources said it
was trying to secure a loan from China to manage the river.
The project
summary seeking a $983.27 million loan for a “Teesta River Comprehensive
Management and Restoration Project”, points out that floods in the river cause
serious erosion of land and destruction of property every year, while in the
dry winter months, the country battles a water crisis, as per a report in Bangladesh’s
leading daily Daily Star.
Teesta is one of
the 54 rivers shared by India and Bangladesh. It originates in India, with
around 113 km of its 315-km length in Bangladesh.
Ties with
Bangladesh have been strained since the Modi government passed the Citizenship
(Amendment) Act and announced plans for a nationwide National Register of
Citizens. Bangladesh had cancelled ministerial visits after the law was passed
in December last year. In early March, Shringla had visited Dhaka to assuage
Bangladesh’s concerns.
Last month,
India handed over 10 broad gauge locomotives to Bangladesh to help it handle
its increasing passenger and freight train operations. Sources said that at
Tuesday’s meeting, Hasina had expressed her gratitude for the same.
Having served as
Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh before, Shringla knows the political and
diplomatic leadership in the neighbouring country quite well. It is his first
visit abroad since the beginning of the pandemic.
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/as-dhaka-holds-talks-with-beijing-foreign-secy-meets-hasina-6560489/
--------
Arab world
Egypt’s
Parliament Passes Law Shielding Sex Crime Victims’ Identities
18 August 2020
Egypt’s
parliament on Tuesday gave its final approval to a law protecting the identity of
victims of sexual harassment and assault, aimed at encouraging women who fear
social stigma to report such crimes.
The measure was
proposed by the government after a rare public debate about sex crimes, which
followed a social media campaign that led to the arrest of a suspected sex
offender.
A new article
added to the Criminal Procedure Law would ban investigative authorities from
disclosing information about victims in such crimes, except to defendants or
their lawyers.
For all the
latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
It will take
effect once approved by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
“When we
observed that there is a reluctance to report specific crimes... and that some
of the victims feared for their reputation from being named in such crimes, the
government submitted a bill to encourage citizens to report these crimes,”
Justice Minister Omar Marwan told parliament on Sunday.
Last month the
public prosecutor charged Ahmed Bassam Zaki, a university student, with indecent
assault of at least three women. He had been the target of a campaign on
Instagram from an account that included postings by women accusing him of sex
crimes. He is being held pending investigation.
The case drew
widespread attention from media, religious figures and women’s groups.
Campaigners say
a deep-rooted bias in the conservative, Muslim-majority nation means women
often face more blame for behavior deemed provocative than men face for sex
crimes.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/08/19/Egypt-s-parliament-passes-law-shielding-sex-crime-victims-identities.html
Saudi Arabia:
Rafik Hariri tribunal verdict beginning of steps to seek justice
Saudi Arabia
said the verdict in the Rafik Hariri assassination case marks the start in achieving
justice by “pursuing, arresting and punishing those involved,” according to a
statement from the Kingdom’s foreign ministry.
“The Kingdom’s
government considers the judicial ruling in the case of the assassination of
Prime Minister Hariri as the emergence of the truth and the beginning of
achieving justice by pursuing, arresting and punishing those involved,” the
statement from the foreign ministry read.
For all the
latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
The Saudi
Arabian government said it is calling for justice and the punishment of
Hezbollah and its terrorist elements while “stressing on the need to protect
Lebanon, the region and the world from the terrorist practices of this party,
which is considered a tool of the Iranian regime.”
A UN-backed
tribunal on Tuesday acquitted three Hezbollah members in absentia over the 2005
murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri in a huge suicide
bombing.
“The trial
chamber finds Hassan Habib Merhi, Hussein Oneissi and Assad Sabra not guilty of
all counts charged in the amended consolidated indictment,” said David Re,
presiding judge of the Netherlands-based Special Tribunal for Lebanon.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2020/08/18/Saudi-Arabia-Rafik-Hariri-tribunal-verdict-beginning-of-steps-to-seek-justice.html
--------
Israel’s Mossad
spy chief visits UAE for security talks
August 18, 2020
DUBAI: Israel’s
Mossad spy agency chief Yossi Cohen visited the UAE for security talks on
Tuesday, only days after the countries agreed to establish diplomatic ties.
The head of
Israel's foreign intelligence service discussed “cooperation in the fields of
security” with the UAE's national security advisor, Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed
Al-Nahyan, in Abu Dhabi, Emirates News Agency reported.
The US, Israel
and UAE, along with several other Gulf states, have a common foe in Iran, which
they accuse of seeking a nuclear bomb, fuelling regional instability and
backing militant groups.
Cohen's trip
marked the first visit to the UAE by an Israeli official after the announcement
last week by US President Donald Trump that the two countries had agreed to
normalise relations.
“The two sides
discussed prospects for cooperation in the fields of security as well as
exchanged points of view on regional developments and on issues of common
interest” including efforts to contain the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the
report said.
As part of the
landmark deal, the Israel agreed to suspend the annexation of occupied West
Bank territories, although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the plan was
not off the table in the long run.
Trump said
leaders from the two countries would sign the historic agreement at the White
House in the coming weeks.
Netanyahu last
week called Cohen to thank him for the Mossad's assistance “in developing the
ties with the Gulf states over the years, which assisted in bringing the peace
treaty to fruition,” the prime minister's office said.
Palestinians
protested the deal which they saw as a betrayal by a major player in the Arab
world, which has broadly held that normal ties with Israel are only possible
once its dispute with the Palestinians is resolved.
Israel-UAE
tensions had run high in 2010 after Mossad was widely blamed for the
assassination in a Dubai hotel room of an operative for Hamas, Mahmoud
Al-Mabhouh.
The deal is only
the third such accord Israel has struck with an Arab country, and raises the
prospect of similar deals with other Gulf states.
The Israeli
prime minister appeared Monday on Sky News Arabia in his first ever interview
with the Abu Dhabi-based network.
“This is a great
moment ... we are making history,” he said, adding: “This is a combination of
limitless possibilities.”
Meanwhile,
Oman's minister responsible for foreign affairs spoke to his Israeli
counterpart on Monday, the first publicised contact since the announcement of
the UAE-Israel deal.
Yusuf bin Alawi
and Israel's Gabi Ashkenazi spoke via telephone about “recent developments in
the region,” Oman's foreign ministry said on Twitter.
Oman, along with
Bahrain, had already expressed its support for the deal, and Bin Alawi told
Ashkenazi that Muscat “clearly reaffirms its position calling for a
comprehensive, just and lasting peace” in the Middle East.
Other Gulf
countries have so far remained silent on the Israel-UAE agreement.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1721401/middle-eastc
--------
Bahrain to set
up committee to counter money laundering and terrorism
August 17, 2020
Bahrain will
form a committee to counter extremism, money laundering and terrorism, under a
royal decree announced on Sunday.
Official media
said the interior minister, Sheikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, will head the
committee, which will propose to the government individuals and entities to be
blacklisted.
The degree said
the committee will be also tasked with “studying all issues related to
extremism and counter-terrorism, funding of terrorism and money laundering”.
The committee
will report to the council of ministers. Among its members will be the religions
affairs minister, governor of the central bank, and heads of intelligence and
police.
Bahrain, which
has a population of 1.6 million is a Middle East banking centre.
The decree said
the committee will specialise in streamlining the government’s anti-terrorism
efforts and “assessing the dangers of extremist thought.”
The committee
will work on “proposing laws and special regulations to counter extremism and
terrorism and its funding, and combat money laundering,” the decree said.
Gulf countries
have stepped up measures in recent years to prevent terror financing and money
laundering.
Bahrain is a
member of the Terrorist Financing Targeting Centre that brings together UAE,
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar along with the US.
The TFTC was
established in 2017 to co-ordinate US and Gulf sanctions on terrorist groups
and members and has so far sanctioned scores of individuals and entities.
Major targets
for the group include ISIS and Al Qaeda. In December 2019, Bahrain joined other
TFTC countries in designating Iranian backed terror groups as sanctioned
parties. It also added Hezbollah of Bahrain, ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the 14
February Youth Coalition, Al Ashtar Brigades, People’s Resistance Brigades, Al
Mukhtar Brigades and Bahrain Freedom Movement to its terror list, the US annual
report on terror financing reported.
Bahrain also has
a counter national counter-extremism plan in line with the UN secretary
general’s roadmap and the country has numerous projects targeted at the youth.
https://www.thenational.ae/world/gcc/bahrain-to-set-up-committee-to-counter-money-laundering-and-terrorism-1.1064626?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1448904_
--------
UN-backed court:
One defendant out of four guilty in 2005 murder of ex-Lebanon PM
18 August 2020
A special
UN-backed tribunal looking into the 2005 truck bombing assassination of former
Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on Tuesday found only one of the four
defendants guilty.
At a hearing
that opened with a moment of silence for the victims of the August 4 port
explosion that devastated Beirut, and in the presence of family members of
those killed in the truck bombing that assassinated Hariri – including his son,
Saad Hariri, who also served as Prime Minister before resigning last October –
judges from the Special Tribunal for Lebanon read out the long-awaited verdict
after a recap of the evidence by trial chamber judges.
For all the
latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
Salim Jamil
Ayyash, Hassan Habib Merhi, Hussein Hassan Oneissi, and Assad Hassan Sabra were
charged in absentia with conspiracy to commit a terrorist act.
Ayyash, the
convicted lead defendant, was also charged with committing a terrorist attack
by means of an explosive device, intentional homicide of Rafik Hariri and the
21 other victims, and attempted intentional homicide of 226 additional people.
The other three
defendants were charged with being accomplices in these acts.
A fifth accused,
Mustafa Amine Badreddine, who was a top Hezbollah commander, died in 2016 and
was subsequently removed from the case.
The tribunal
found Tuesday that there was enough evidence to convict Ayyash in absentia of
the all the charges against him.
The tribunal
found that Ayyash, the chief defendant, had been the user of a cell phone
identified by prosecutors as critical in the attack – part of a “red network”
of mobile users that appeared based on its movements to be the core team
involved in carrying out the attack.
The tribunal was
"satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt" that the evidence showed that
Ayyash used the phone, Judge Micheline Braidy said, reading a summary of the
2,600-page verdict. While the defense had asserted that Ayyash was outside Lebanon
in Saudi Arabia on a hajj pilgrimage at the time of the attack, the tribunal
found that in fact, he had postponed the trip and remained in Lebanon.
But the tribunal
found that the circumstantial evidence connecting the other three defendants to
the attack was not strong enough to prove them guilty beyond a reasonable
doubt.
Prosecutors
alleged that Hariri’s movements were tracked for months before his
assassination by a network of co-conspirators using color-coded mobile phones.
The case against
the defendants relied heavily on telecommunications evidence showing how the
movement of the specific mobile phones tracked Hariri’s movements and
additional evidence connecting the mobile phones in question to the defendants,
including colocation with their personal phones.
The tribunal
noted that people who took part in some of the preparations for the attack,
including those who were surveilling Hariri, did not necessarily know that they
were preparing for an assassination attempt or for a suicide bombing.
The judges noted
that Ayyash had an affiliation with Hezbollah and that the accused were all
supporters of the group, but the verdict also stopped short of directly
pointing to responsibility by Hezbollah in the attack.
While noting
that Hariri’s killing was “undoubtedly a political act” and that “the growing
opposition to Syrian presence in Lebanon (by Hariri’s allies) threatened
Syria’s interests,” Judge David Re added that while “the trial chamber is of
the view Syria and Hezbollah may have had motives to eliminate Mr. Hariri and
some of his political allies; however there was no evidence that Hezbollah
leadership had an involvement in Mr. Hariri's murder and there is no direct
evidence of Syrian involvement in it."
But Judge Janet
Nosworthy said that those responsible for the bombing “must have known that
numerous people would have been killed or injured regardless of whether or not
it succeeded in killing Mr. Hariri” and evidence shows it was “designed to
destabilize Lebanon generally.”
The tribunal
also addressed the case of Ahmad Abu Adas, a Palestinian man who appeared in a
video claiming responsibility for the attack and who has since never been
found. Prosecutors had claimed that Merhi, Oneissi, and Sabra had targeted Abu
Adas before the attack to find someone who would make a false claim of
responsibility.
The judges found
that while Abu Adas was not the suicide bomber and the video appeared to be a
false claim, the prosecution had not proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the
three defendants had been part of the making of the video or that they were
involved in Abu Adas’ disappearance.
The mood in
Beirut was anxious leading up to the reading of the verdict, with many
anticipating clashes between Hariri supporters and Hezbollah supporters. The
verdict had originally been scheduled for August 7 but was postponed in light
of the Beirut port explosion.
Justice after 15
years
For 15 years,
debate has swirled over who was responsible for the assassination, with many
fingers pointing at Syria or Hezbollah.
Hariri served as
prime minister of Lebanon five times following the 1975-90 civil war. A
multi-billionaire who made his fortune in construction in Saudi Arabia, he was
the dominant Sunni Muslim politician in Lebanon’s sectarian system.
He was
assassinated on February 14, 2005, after visiting the Parliament building and
neabry Café de l’Etoile. As his motorcade passed along the seafront corniche
near the St. George hotel, a truck bomb tore through his vehicle, leaving a
massive crater and ripping the facades of the surrounding buildings.
The other
victims killed included Hariri’s bodyguards, pedestrians, and the former
economy minister Bassil Fleihan.
By June 2005, an
international investigation was underway headed by German prosecutor Detlev
Mehlis, and by October it had issued a report implicating high-ranking Syrian
and Lebanese officials. Syria always denied any involvement.
In August, four
Lebanese generals who were pillars of the Syrian-dominated order were arrested
at the request of Mehlis. They were released nearly four years later without
charge after the tribunal said there was not sufficient evidence to indict
them. They always denied any role.
Hariri and Syria
In the year
before his assassination, Hariri had been embroiled in a row over the extension
of the term of pro-Syria President Emile Lahoud. Under Syrian pressure, the
constitution was amended to allow the three-year extension. Hariri had opposed
the move but eventually signed the amendment.
While Hariri is
credited with much of Lebanon’s post-war reconstruction, he resigned in 2004 as
a UN Security Council resolution put pressure on Syria over its role in
Lebanon.
The resolution
called for a free and fair presidential election, the withdrawal of all foreign
forces, and for the disbandment of armed groups in the country, which included
the pro-Damascus Hezbollah.
His
assassination ignited the “Cedar Revolution,” mass protests against the Syrian
presence in Lebanon. Under growing international pressure, Syria withdrew its
troops in April 2005.
What unfolded
after would reshape Lebanon for the next decade and a half until new popular
protests would break out in October 2019 that called for an end to the
sectarian system.
Hariri’s son
Saad, who would become prime minister and step down last October, led a
coalition of anti-Syrian parties known as March 14, which was backed by Western
states and Saudi Arabia. Syria’s Lebanese allies, including the Shia Hezbollah,
gathered into a rival alliance called March 8. A sectarian divide emerged
between Sunnis and Shia.
Lebanon’s two
main Christian Maronite leaders, Michel Aoun and Samir Geagea, both returned to
political life: Aoun returned from exile and Geagea was released from jail.
The March 14
alliance won a parliamentary majority in June.
Several years of
political conflict ensued between March 14 and March 8, much of it focused on
the issue of Hezbollah’s weapons. The tribunal into the Hariri killing was also
a point of conflict.
The tension
culminated in a brief eruption of civil conflict in 2008 during which Hezbollah
took over Beirut.
Blame shifts to
Hezbollah
The German
prosecutor Mehlis was replaced in 2006, and several personnel resigned. Saad
Hariri, who had blamed Syria retracted his accusation in 2010, and in 2011 the
tribunal named four Hezbollah members wanted over the killing, none of which
have been detained by Lebanese authorities. Hezbollah has said they will not
be.
The indictment
said they were linked to the attack largely by circumstantial evidence gleaned
from phone records. A fifth member of Hezbollah was indicted in 2012.
Hezbollah
dismissed the indictment, saying it contained no proof of what it said were
fabricated accusations. One of the original four suspects, senior Hezbollah
commander Mustafa Badreddine, was killed in Syria in 2016.
Hezbollah
Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah has accused the tribunal of trying to
undermine his group and has said it is a tool of its enemies in the United
States and Israel.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/08/18/UN-backed-court-One-defendant-out-of-four-guilty-in-2005-murder-of-ex-Lebanon-PM.html
--------
Lebanon tribunal
convicts Hezbollah member Salim Jamil Ayyash for Hariri assassination
NAJIA HOUSSARI
August 18, 2020
BEIRUT: A
UN-backed court found one Hezbollah member guilty on Tuesday of the 2005
assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, but acquitted
three others of involvement in a truck-bomb attack that also claimed the lives
of 21 other people.
The verdicts
from the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the Netherlands were delivered more
than 15 years after Hariri was killed and 13 years after the court began its
investigations.
The tribunal
ruled that Salim Jamil Ayyash, 56, was “the main criminal in the Hariri
assassination and a co-conspirator in a plot to commit a terrorist act.” The
court said Ayyash “had organizational links with Hezbollah” and that Hezbollah
and Syria had “benefited from the assassination.”
Three other
accused — Assad Hassan Sabra, 43, Hussein Hassan Oneissi, 46, and Hassan Habib
Merhi, 54 — were acquitted of any involvement in the crime because of
“insufficient evidence.”
However, the
tribunal ruled that Hariri’s killing was politically motivated and an “act of
terrorism designed to cause fear in the Lebanese population.”
Former Prime
Minister Saad Hariri, the murdered man’s son, said his family accepted the
tribunal’s verdict. “The time for political crimes that go unpunished is over.
We will not rest until the punishment is implemented,” he said. “We will not
relinquish our rights. The Lebanese want truth and justice.”
Special Tribunal
Judge David Re, assisted by other judges, presented a summary of more than
3,000 papers detailing the court’s ruling. The verdict was broadcast on all
channels in Lebanon, except Hezbollah’s outlet.
“The
assassination of Hariri was a terrorist act, carried out with the intention of
creating a state of panic. Its desired goal was to destabilize Lebanon in
general and kill a large number of people,” the court said.
“Evidence
indicates that the assassination of Hariri had political links, but it does not
prove who ordered his assassination. This assassination was a political act
directed by those who viewed Hariri as a threat to their activities.”
The court found
that “Hezbollah and Syria have benefited from the assassination of Hariri, but
there is no evidence that the leaders of the party and Syria were responsible
for the assassination.” Ayyash, who was tried in his absence, will be sentenced
on Friday.
Saudi Arabia
“views the ruling as the emergence of truth and the beginning of a process of
achieving justice by chasing, arresting and punishing those involved,” the
Foreign Ministry said.
“In calling for
Hezbollah and its terrorist elements to face justice and be punished, Saudi
Arabia stresses the need to protect Lebanon, the region and the world from the
terrorist practices of this group,” it said.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1721226/middle-east
--------
South Asia
Three Years On,
Nearly 7,30,000 Rohingya Muslim Refugees Live in Bangladesh Camps
AUGUST 19, 2020
August 25 marks
the third anniversary of attacks by Rohingya Muslim insurgents that triggered
military retaliation and led to the exodus from Buddhist-majority Myanmar over
following days and weeks of about 730,000 Rohingya to Bangladesh.
The insurgents
raided 30 police posts and an army base in Rakhine State. At least 12 members
of the security forces were killed, the army and government said at the time.
The Myanmar
military responded immediately with a sweeping crackdown in Rohingya areas that
forced the 730,000 villagers to flee to Bangladesh where they remain in camps.
U.N.
investigators later concluded the Myanmar military campaign was executed with
“genocidal intent”. Myanmar denies that, saying the army was battling the
insurgency. The new arrivals in Bangladesh joined more than 200,000 Rohingya
already there, who fled earlier violence, most living camps, straining
resources in one of Asia’s poorest regions.
Here are some
facts about the camps in Bangladesh’s southeastern coastal district of Cox’s
Bazar, based on information from the U.N. refugee agency, Bangladesh government
and the International Organization for Migration.
— Most of the 1
million or so Rohingya in Bangladesh live in five camps that cover an area
equivalent to one third of Manhattan. About half of the refugees are children,
and there are more women in the camps than men.
— More than
700,000 live in the world’s largest and most densely populated refugee camp,
Kutupalong, an area of just 13 square kilometres.
— About 131,000
people live in the Teknaf camp, south of Kutupalong; more than 22,000 people
are in the Unchiprang camp; about 22,000 are in Shamlapur and nearly 13,000 in
the smallest camp, Chakmarkul.
— Most of the
refugees live in shelters made of bamboo and plastic sheets. #8212; U.N.
agencies, international and national aid groups and the Bangladesh government
provide them with food, healthcare and basic facilities like communal toilets
and drinking water.
— Refugees are
not allowed to work and cannot leave the camps without the permission of the
government.
— Bangladesh
late last year restricted access to high-speed internet in the camps, citing
national security.
— In January,
Bangladesh allowed Rohingya children to formally study up to the age of 14
following the Myanmar curriculum. Those older than 14 will get skills training.
— The first
novel coronavirus case was detected in the camps on May 14. As of Aug. 17, a
total of 79 cases had been confirmed among the refugees, with six deaths.
— Bangladesh and
Myanmar have agreed to complete the return of the refugees but attempts to get
a repatriation process going have failed as refugees refuse to go back, fearing
more violence.
https://www.news18.com/news/world/factbox-three-years-on-rohingya-refugees-in-bangladesh-camps-2799795.html
--------
Key Daesh member
killed in Afghanistan: NDS
19 Aug 2020
The Afghanistan
National Directory for Security has said in a statement that the ISIS chief
judge for Khurasan state has been killed in one of their operations.
According to the
statement published by NDS, Abdullah Orokzai, the chief judge for ISISK was
responsible for many complex operations in the Achin and Nazian districts of
the Eastern Nangarhar province.
The statement
has further clarified that Abdullah Orokzai was also the deputy of Assadullah
Orokzai, the intelligence chief of ISIS.
This comes as
Mr. Orokzai was also responsible for the Nangarhar prison attack which was
undertaken with the help of the Taliban group nearly 3 weeks back.
https://www.khaama.com/key-daesh-member-killed-in-afghanistan-nds-9870987/
--------
Rocket attacks
during independence eve kill or injure 19 in Kabul
18 Aug 2020
Photographers
take a pictures of a damaged car after a rocket attack in Kabul, Afghanistan,
Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2020, Several mortar shells slammed into various part of
Kabul on Tuesday morning as Afghans marked their country’s Independence Day
amid new uncertainties over the start of talks between the Taliban and the Kabul
government. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
According to
reports, at least 14 rockets were launched over Kabul city during the
independence eve on Tuesday which killed or injured 19.
The Ministry of
Interior Affairs has confirmed that the incidents have killed at least 3 and
injured 16 others.
“We call it a
terroristic act”, Tariq Arian a spokesperson to MOI said, “We have detained two
suspects in relation to the incidents who are being investigated.”
According to a
report by AFP, 6 members of the Presidential Palace are among those injured on
Tuesday.
The rockets were
launched during an official ceremony where the Afghan government was
celebrating its 101st independence day.
Taliban have
declined their involvement in these incidents.
https://www.khaama.com/kabul-under-rocket-attacks-and-on-its-101st-independence-eve-0980987/
--------
Taliban deny US
report of Iran bounty for attacks on Americans
SAYED SALAHUDDIN
August 19, 2020
KABUL: The
Taliban on Tuesday dismissed a US military report that said Iran had paid
bounties to the group’s combatants for attacks on American and coalition troops
in Afghanistan.
“We strongly
reject this allegation that said Iran offered cash to our Mujahideen in our
struggle against the occupation,” Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the
Taliban, told Arab News by phone. “No country has helped us in our cause nor
does the Taliban need any country’s persuasion or any type of aid for
fulfilling their responsibility,” he added.
Citing unnamed
US defense and intelligence officials, CNN on Monday reported that Iran’s
payments to the Taliban were linked to at least six attacks carried out by the
group last year. One such attack included a suicide bombing on the Bagram
airfield, the largest US base in Afghanistan, which killed two civilians and
injured more than 70, including four US personnel, it said.
Mujahid said the
report, which comes months after a similar assessment by US intelligence saying
Russia had also assisted the Taliban with financial support in recent years for
targeting American military, “were false claims to confuse public opinions.” He
said part of the efforts of those “circulating such claims was to harm the
peace deal,” which the Taliban struck with Washington in late February in Doha,
Qatar this year, making history and resulting in the total withdrawal of US-led
troops from Afghanistan by next spring, after 19 years of war.
Iran’s embassy
in Kabul could not be reached for comment at the time of writing this article,
while Afghan government officials refused to comment on the matter.
Afghanistan has
been a battleground of direct and indirect wars for both regional and foreign
powers for over four decades, with various foreign spy groups, at different
junctures in time, helping one side or the other in the conflict.
Iran, a
historical US archrival, was among the countries that hailed the US occupation
of Afghanistan, which finally led to the Taliban being ousted from power in
late 2001. However, there have been accusations from ordinary Afghans and some
lawmakers that the Islamic Republic, worried about the prolongation of the US
presence in Afghanistan and skeptical of its goals in the region, has provided
military aid to the Taliban with the goal of harming US interests in
Afghanistan in recent years.
Hamidullah
Tokhi, a lawmaker from the southern Zabul province, said that several MPs had
voiced their concerns in parliament about Iran giving “sanctuary to the
families of Taliban commanders, and offers of weapons and cash” several years
ago.
Mirwais Khadem,
a legislator from the Helmand province, which lies near the border with Iran,
agreed, saying: “Iran has been giving advance arms, mortars and cash to the
Taliban in recent years, even after the signing of America’s deal with the
Taliban.”
They were joined
by Abdul Sattar Hussaini, an MP from Farah, also located near the border with
Iran.
“Apart from
harming the US in Afghanistan, Iran also wants to see the continuation of the
war in Afghanistan because it cannot afford to see a stable government in our
soil,” he said, attributing the latter to a historical water dispute between
the two countries.
Unlike the other
lawmakers, however, Tokhi questioned the “silence” of the US administration
over Iran’s aid to the Taliban in the past and the “reasons for raising it
now.”
Experts say it
boils down to a regional rivalry between Tehran and Washington.
“There has been
a long-term regional competition between the US and Iran, but the rivalry
between the two countries has soared since President Donald Trump annulled the
nuclear deal with Iran several years back and stepped up sanctions on the
Islamic Republic,” Nasratullah Haqpal, an analyst on regional affairs, said.
He added that
this could be one reason why Iran is “doing whatever it can in the region (to
retaliate), especially in Afghanistan, to put pressure on the US.”
Taj Mohammed, a
former journalist and now an analyst, said the emergence of Daesh in
Afghanistan has also brought the Taliban and Iran closer to each other as both
see the network as their enemy.
“Iran and the
Taliban were hostile to each other (in the past), but the emergence and growth
of Daesh here has also prompted them to cooperate in fighting against a common
enemy. So, it is not only American forces but also those of Daesh,” he said.
Despite claims
by the Afghan government of “imparting heavy blows” on Daesh in recent years,
the network has claimed responsibility for several deadly attacks in the past
few months.
One of these
included the firing of rockets during President Ashraf Ghani’s inauguration to
power in Kabul in March this year, while the other was a brazen strike on a
prison in Jalalabad earlier this month, which facilitated the escape of several
hundred prisoners, including Daesh fighters.
A similar rocket
attack took place on Tuesday when Ghani was marking the country’s 101st
Independence Day. At least 17 mortars and rockets, fired from two vehicles,
landed in various parts of the city, wounding ten civilians, the interior
ministry said.
There was no
claim of responsibility for Tuesday’s rocketing, one of which, according to
unconfirmed reports, landed in an area of the presidential palace.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1721491/world
--------
Southeast Asia
Religious
affairs minister appointed member of Muslim Council of Elders
18 Aug 2020
KUALA LUMPUR,
Aug 18 ― Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Dr Ahmed al-Tayyib appointed Minister in
the Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Seri Zulkifli Mohamad
Al-Bakri as a member of the Muslim Council of Elders.
In a Facebook
post today, Zulkifli said he hoped that the appointment would be of great
benefit to Malaysia and the Muslim world as a whole.
He also shared a
letter he received from Muslim Council of Elders secretary-general Dr Sultan
Faisal Al Remeithi.
The letter
mentioned that Zulkifli's appointment was made in the hope that continued
cooperation with other members of the council could strengthen global peace.
Muslim Council
of Elders is an international institution that unites Muslim scholars, experts
and dignitaries who are known for their wisdom, sense of justice, independence
and moderateness.
They will work
together to promote peace, to discourage infighting and to address the sources
of conflict, divisiveness and fragmentation in Muslim communities. ― Bernama
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/08/18/religious-affairs-minister-appointed-member-of-muslim-council-of-elders/1895112
--------
Waste of
resources, Malaysia's police chief says, as it investigates a new sodomy
allegation
AUG 18, 2020
KUALA LUMPUR
(THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Malaysian police is investigating an allegation
contained in a sworn declaration that a prominent opposition politician
committed sodomy, a criminal offence in the Muslim-majority country.
The criminal
investigation department (CID) has already recorded a statement from a
commissioner of oaths who was a witness in the statutory declaration (SD)
written by the alleged victim, said police chief Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Bador on
Tuesday (Aug 18).
The alleged sex
acts occurred seven years ago, news reports said, with the alleged victim paid
in the four trysts with the politician.
"This
matter is a waste of the police resources, and I am sick of such matters,"
the Inspector General of Police said. "However, a police report has been
lodged, thus an investigation paper has been opened."
He told a news
conference after attending an event at police headquarters: "We are also
in the midst of recording the statement of the one who made the SD as
well."
"Investigations
are still ongoing, he added.
The CID's deputy
director Mior Faridalathrash Wahid confirmed that a police report had been
lodged on the matter.
"We confirm
that a report was lodged, and we are investigating the matter from all angles.
"We hope
the public will refrain from speculating, as the matter is under
investigation," he said when contacted on Tuesday.
It was learnt
that the individual who made the SD lodged the report after the document was
posted on an online blog recently.
Malaysiakini
news site reported that the SD contained explicit details, in which the man
claimed he had sex with the politician four times in 2013 at different hotels
in Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Johor and Penang.
He also claimed
that for each time, he was given RM300 (S$98) cash.
Malaysiakini
reported that the man also alleged that upon the request of the politician, he
also introduced a friend to him.
This friend was
purportedly sodomised by the politician and paid the same amount.
The SD was dated
June 29, 2020.
Malaysiakini
also reported that the man who made the SD confirmed a police report was
lodged.
https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/se-asia/waste-of-resources-malaysias-police-chief-says-as-it-investigates-a-new-sodomy
--------
Wife of
Indonesia’s Most-Wanted Militant Arrested
BY FAROUK ARNAZ
AUGUST 19, 2020
Jakarta. A woman
believed to be the wife of terror fugitive Ali Kalora has been arrested in
Central Sulawesi as she planned to deliver logistics to the militant group, the
National Police said on Tuesday.
The woman,
identified as Ummu Syifa, 28, was intercepted in southern coast of the
provincial capital of Poso in late July, National Police spokesman Brig. Gen.
Awi Setiyono said in a statement.
“She was on her
way to deliver money amounting to Rp 1,59 million ($107) and food to the East
Indonesia Mujahidin (MIT)," Awi said, referring to the militant group
blamed for years of attacks in the province and its neighbors.
Ummu is charged
under the tough anti-terrorism law for concealing information about a terror
fugitive, he added. She could face a lifetime in prison if convicted.
Police have
intensified man-hunt operations in the province to capture the remaining
members of the MIT, most notably Ali Kalora, following a series of recent
attacks.
The Army deployed
150 soldiers on Saturday to join counter-terror operations by the police in
Central Sulawesi.
“The army troops
will join Operation Tinombala to hunt down East Indonesia Mujahidin members in
the mountainous region of Poso,” provincial military command chief Brig. Gen.
Farid Makruf said, adding the deployed soldiers have proven intelligence and
combat capabilities.
Earlier this
month, a vehicle carrying medical workers was ambushed and robbed by gunmen. In
a separate incident, two farmers were taken hostages and one of them was
killed. Police said the MIT was responsible for the attacks.
Operation
Tinombala was initiated by the National Police in January to hunt down 13
remaining members of the MIT, whose charismatic leader Santoso was killed in a
police operation in July 2016. Ali has since emerged as its new leader.
National Police
Chief Idham Azis has extended Operation Tinombala until Sept. 30.
Major Crackdown
Awi, the police
spokesman, said at least 72 suspected militants have been arrested in a series
of operations in 13 provinces between June and August.
The suspects
were believed to be members of homegrown terror network Jemaah Ansharut Daulat,
which is blamed for a knife attack that injured then chief security minister
Wiranto in October last year.
The United
States government designated JAD a terrorist organization in January 2017, in a
move to disrupt Islamic State operations in Southeast Asia.
Among the
suspects were nine people arrested in the West Sumatra capital of Padang last
month for an alleged plot to attack a police post, Awi said.
Another suspect
was arrested in Bali on July 23 for spreading “radical contents” about the
Islamic State and bomb making tutorial, he added.
https://jakartaglobe.id/news/wife-of-indonesias-mostwanted-militant-arrested
--------
North America
US to submit
complaint to UNSC on Iran nuclear deal: Sources
18 August 2020
Following a
crushing defeat in the wake of Washington’s failed bid to expand an arms
embargo on Iran at the United Nations Security Council, the United States is
reportedly planning to submit a complaint to the 15-member body over
accusations of Iran's non-compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, even though
Washington unilaterally quit the landmark accord in 2018.
Official sources
at the UN said US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would likely travel to New
York on Thursday and meet with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to submit
the complaint that seeks a return of all UN sanctions on Iran by triggering a
snapback provision in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The sources said
the sanctions snapback process would be tough as Russia, China and other
countries on the Security Council would challenge the legality of the US move
given that Washington is no longer a signatory to the JCPOA after unilaterally
withdrawing from the agreement in May 2018.
Diplomatic
source tells Al-Jazeera: @SecPompeo will submit a complaint to #UNSC on
Thursday, accusing #Iran of violating #nuclear deal. #JCPOA snapback in the
making by #US. https://t.co/FfAJh96spp
— Habib
Abdolhossein (@HAbdolhossein) August 18, 2020
Once Washington
submits its complaint about Iran to the Security Council, the body has 30 days
to adopt a resolution to extend sanctions relief for Tehran or else the
measures would automatically snapback.
The UN Security
Council almost unanimously refused on Friday to support a US-sponsored draft
resolution on extending the arms embargo against Iran, which is due to expire
in October under the JCPOA.
During the
15-member Security Council vote, the US received support only from the
Dominican Republic for its anti-Iran resolution, leaving it far short of the
minimum nine "yes" votes required for adoption.
Russia and
China, both veto-wielding powers and parties to the JCPOA, voted against the
draft resolution and the remaining 11 Security Council members, including
France, Germany and Britain, abstained.
A day after the
US suffered a humiliating defeat at the Security Council, US President Donald
Trump pledged to use the controversial snapback technique, saying, "We'll
be doing a snapback. You'll be watching it next week."
"Snapback”
was envisioned in the event Iran was proven to be in violation of the JCPOA
which Trump unilaterally left in May 2018.
The US circulated
a six-page memo last Thursday from State Department lawyers, claiming that the
United States remained part of the 2015 Security Council Resolution 2231, and
still had the right to use the snapback provision.
However, a
spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Sunday that the
United States is not a party to the JCPOA anymore and therefore cannot force
the reinstatement of UN sanctions on Iran.
Iran's Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also denounced the US attempts to invoke the snapback
mechanism, saying, "American snapback is illegal and unacceptable and the
Americans know they cannot use snapback.”
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/08/18/632106/US-complaint-United-Nations-Security-Council-
--------
Bolton dodges
question on ties with anti-Iran terrorists MEK, calls for 'regime change'
18 August 2020
US war hawk John
Bolton has dodged a question about his ties with the anti-Iran
Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization terrorist group, calling for "regime
change."
The former
national security advisor, who was ousted by US President Donald Trump, spoke
at the National Press Club Tuesday about his promise to celebrate regime change
in Iran in 2019.
"I didn't
hear the excerpt from my speech but I can tell you what I did say in 2018 was
that the objective of the United States' policy should be regime change in Iran
before the 40th anniversary of the 1979 revolution."
He further
claimed that, "the Trump administration never adopted a policy of regime
change. I think that's a mistake."
The MKO has conducted
many assassinations and bombings against Iranian officials and civilians since
the 1979 victory of Iran’s Islamic Revolution. It notoriously sided with former
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during his 1980-88 war on Iran.
Out of the
nearly 17,000 Iranians killed in terrorist assaults since the Revolution, about
12,000 fell victim to the MKO’s acts of terror.
The terrorist
outfit was on the US list of terrorist organizations until 2012. Major European
countries, including France, have also removed it from their blacklists. The
anti-Iran terrorists enjoy freedom of activity in the US and Europe, and even
hold meetings with American and EU officials.
Europe is home
to the rogue entity and American taxpayers' money has funded the atrocities of
the corrupt grouplet.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/08/18/632104/Bolton-dodges-question-on-mko-anti-Iran-terrorist-group
--------
Ron Paul warns
Trump's failed Iran policy may lead to war
18 August 2020
Former US
congressman Ron Paul has warned that the Trump administration's failed Iran
policy was leading Americans to war in the Middle East region.
In an interview
attached to a featured article titled Trump's Failed Iran Policy Is Leading Us
To War, Paul said Trump's failed hostile "maximum pressure" policy
against Iran had received no support by most other countries.
The former
Republican congressman and presidential candidate referred to the Trump
administration's Iran policy as an example of "arrogance at it
greatest", insisting that the use of force, and bullying a country to
submit to US demands, was not the right direction for the Iran policy.
"If people
really, really cared about it they would be going in a different
direction," he said, pointing out that diplomatic relations and trade
deals were the right path to peace.
"We should
be able to talk to people.We should be able to trade with people," he
said.
He noted that
America's defeat at the United Nation Security Council (UNSC) was another
indicator that the Trump administration was on the wrong path and other members
of the UNSC had understood this.
Paul said US
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Special Representative for Iran Elliot
Abrams, who were currently running US foreign affairs, were hawkish neocons
(neoconservatives), pursuing the objectives set by the deep state, which were
devised to benefit the owners of the military–industrial complex.
"Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo has been foaming at the mouth for war with Iran for years,
along with the various neocons like Eliot Abrams who serve as cogs in the war
machine," the article reads.
According to
Paul, Trump's Middle East policies had resulted in an escalation of tensions,
driving the region towards war.
"The
friction is growing. It is growing very much," he said.
Paul noted that,
"It has been aggravated with the recently signed treaty between the UAE
and Israel," he said.
Paul noted that
the US arms sales to the UAE was being publicized as a positive development.
The former
congressman condemned Washington's "imperialistic" ideology, warning
that promoting global hegemony was the established bipartisan US foreign policy
condoned by both the Democrats and the Republicans.
"We're
going to be interventionists, we're going to be imperialistic, we're going to
be inflationary, we are going to rule the world until we can't rule the world
anymore," Paul insisted.
He cited the
seizure of Iranian tanker ships delivering fuel to the suffering people of
Venezuela as another example of failed US foreign policy.
He said
Americans needed to make efforts to build better relations with other nations,
instead of antagonizing them.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/08/18/632085/US-Trump-Pompeo-Abrahms-Iran-Police-Paul
--------
Russia rejected
US anti-Iran text after 19 months of negotiation: State Dept. official
17 August 2020
Russia
"refused to negotiate" an anti-Iran text proposed by the US ahead of
Washington's embarrassment at the UN Security Council over extension of an arms
embargo on Tehran, says a State Department official.
"The United
States has for the last 19 months sought to foster dialogue and discussion with
Russia and other Security Council members on extending the UN arms
embargo," the State Department spokesperson told US News on Monday.
"Russia has repeatedly, and puzzlingly, claimed there is no legitimate
basis to discuss extending the UN arms embargo at the UN Security Council, and
has refused to negotiate on any of the texts we proposed."
Speaking on the
condition of anonymity, the official further claimed that Washington has rejected
Russian President Vladimir Putin's call for a global summit on Iran because it
finds the Security Council "the best place to have discussions" on
the issue.
"The United
States believes strongly that the Security Council is the best place to have
discussions related to extending the UN arms embargo, and we have the benefit
of 13 years of Security Council precedent on our side," the spokesperson
said in an email.
This is while US
President Donald Trump has reportedly told aides he would like to meet with his
Russian counterpart in person before the 2020 presidential election in
November.
The US faced an
embarrassment at the Security Council Friday after even its allies — Germany,
France, and Britain — refused to throw
their support behind Trump in extending the arms embargo on Iran, set to be
lifted in October under the Iran nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/08/17/632030/-Russia-rejected-US-anti-Iran-text-after-19-months-of-negotiation
--------
Pakistan
No recognition
of Israel unless Palestine freed: Imran
19 Aug 2020
ISLAMABAD: Prime
Minister Imran Khan has categorically said that Pakistan could not recognise
Israel as a state unless it gave freedom to Palestine.
In a two-hour
and late-night interview with Dunya TV on Tuesday, he touched upon several
issues, from the government’s strategy to deal with Covid-19, sugar and wheat
crises, poor civic amenities in Karachi, government-opposition relations and
FBR reforms to Pakistan’s foreign relations.
On foreign
policy, the prime minister said: “The Quaid-i-Azam had said in 1948 that
Pakistan could not recognise Israel unless it gave freedom to Palestinians.
“If we recognise
Israel and ignore tyranny faced by the Palestinians, we will have to give up
(the cause of) Kashmir as well, and this we cannot do.”
In the context
of the UAE, which has recently established ties with Israel, the prime minister
said every state had its own foreign policy.
He refuted an
impression that Pakistan-Saudi Arabia relations had been shaken over Kashmir
issue. “Saudi Arabia is one of our key friends and our relations are still
fraternal and unchanged,” he said.
The PM said
Pakistan’s future was linked to China as China defended Pakistan in all
difficult times. He said Chinese President Xi Jinping would visit Pakistan in
the winter.
Regarding
Covid-19, the prime minister gave his government the credit for tackling the
issue effectively and keeping a balance between precautionary measures and
business activities. “Initially even my party leaders were against my strategy
and were asking why strict lockdown was not being imposed in the country,” he said.
“But our smart lockdown strategy worked and… the country managed to curb the
spread of the deadly disease,” he said.
On the sugar
scandal, he reiterated that he would not spare any “mafia” or anyone who was
involved in creating shortage of sugar and hike in its price.
He, however,
expressed sorrow over action taken against his close friend and PTI leader
Jahangir Tareen, one of the sugar barons. “Jahangir Tareen is a better
businessman. The departments concerned will decide his case,” he said.
Talking about
pathetic civic amenities in Karachi, Mr Khan said the federal government was
allocating funds for the city and special attention was being given to it to
overcome its problems.
“We want Karachi
to be a real metropolitan city as we are also trying to make Lahore and
Peshawar metropolitan cities where they have their own elected members, own
revenue generation system and independence to spend,” he added.
Speaking about
Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and the National Accountability Bureau’s
cases against him, the PM expressed confidence in the CM and said: “I have
checked the cases against Mr Buzdar relating to award of liquor licence and the
ring road through Intelligence Bureau and found them baseless with no element
of corruption,” he added.
The PM admitted
the government had mishandled the issue of fake licences of commercial pilots
and said: “The fallout of the issue could be minimised by properly handling the
matter.”
https://www.dawn.com/news/1575192/no-recognition-of-israel-unless-palestine-freed-imran
--------
Pakistan Taliban
reunite with two splinter groups as army hails battle success
AUGUST 17, 2020
Jibran Ahmad
PESHAWAR,
Pakistan (Reuters) - The Pakistani Taliban have brought two splinter groups
back into their fold, they announced in a statement, days after the army said
anti-militant operations nationwide had brought “hard-earned success”.
The Pakistani
Taliban, fighting to overthrow the government and install their own brand of
Shariah, are an umbrella of Sunni militant groups called Tehrik-e-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP), which has broken into many divisions.
The TTP,
designated a terrorist group by the United States, has been in disarray in
recent years, especially after several of its top leaders were killed by U.S.
drone strikes on both sides of the border, forcing its members into shelter in
Afghanistan, or fleeing to urban Pakistan.
“Tehrik-e-Taliban
Pakistan welcomes them,” the TTP statement said of the two splinter groups,
adding that it would like all groups to unite.
The reunion with
Jamat-ul-Ahrar (JuA) and Hizb-ul-Ahrar (HuA) appears significant in view of the
rise in militant attacks against security forces, most claimed by the TTP,
including some suicide bombings.
Pakistani army
spokesman Major General Babar Iftikhar said last week however that the
military’s operations against militants had been very successful.
“The war against
terrorism has yielded some hard-earned success,” he told a news conference.
“More than 18,000 terrorists have been killed and more than 400 tonnes of
explosive material seized” in a countrywide anti-militant operation that
started in 2017.
The reunion
comes at a time when the United States is promoting peace talks between the
Afghan Taliban, also seeking to reimpose their strict form of Islamic rule, and
the government in Kabul.
The Pakistani
Taliban said the two groups pledged allegiance to the TTP chief, Mufti Noor
Wali, shown in photos at a ceremony.
It was not clear
what side of the border the ceremony took place. Government and military officials
did not comment on the merger or the location of the ceremony.
The JuA, which
broke from the TTP in 2014, has been involved in major attacks, including the
2016 suicide bombing in a park in eastern city of Lahore that the group said
targeted Christians celebrating Easter. It killed more than 70 people.
The HuA, a
faction that further split from the JuA, has not been so active.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pakistan-taliban/pakistan-taliban-reunite-with-two-splinter-groups-as-army-hails-battle-success-idUSKCN25D1T8?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1448904_
--------
Pakistan army
chief meets Saudi officials amid strained ties
Aug 19, 2020
ISLAMABAD: Amid
strained relations with Saudi Arabia over its pro-India position on the Kashmir
issue, Pakistan army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa has been busy in the Gulf
Kingdom meeting their military and defence officials to calm down Riyadh after
it threatened with its financial lifeline to Islamabad.
A brief
statement by Pakistan army said Bajwa met Saudi Arabia’s deputy minister of
defence Prince Khalid bin Salman bin Abdulaziz on Tuesday to discuss matters of
mutual interest.
Without giving
details, the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), army’s media wing, earlier
said that Bajwa had met Saudi’s General Fayyad bin Hamid Al-Ruwaili, chairman
of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, and other top commanders to discuss
military ties, including training exchanges.
Bajwa’s Saudi
visit comes days after Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi blasted
the Saudi-led Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for not actively
denouncing India’s actions in the Kashmir region.
Pakistan,
Qureshi had said, skipped a summit in Malaysia last year with a “heavy heart”
because of Saudi Arabia’s reservations, so now it was time for Riyadh to step
forward. Qureshi's remarks revived Riyadh’s anger, forcing Islamabad to pay
back $1bn prematurely. It was reportedly demanding another $1bn of the loan.
Last month,
Pakistan had to borrow $1bn from China to repay part of $3bn loan from Saudi
Arabia to prop up Islamabad's depleting foreign reserves.
A traditional
ally, Saudi Arabia gave Pakistan a $3bn loan and $3.2bn oil credit facility to
help its balance of payments crisis in late 2018.
The finance ministry
last week confirmed that Riyadh was reviewing Islamabad’s request for an
extension of the oil credit facility, which ended in July.
Huge amounts of
money sent by expatriates in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE),
Kuwait and other Gulf states have a significant effect on Pakistan’s economy.
Saudi Arabia and
the UAE jointly host more than three million Pakistanis.
Saudi Arabia,
where 1.9 million Pakistanis reside, tops the list of countries with the
highest remittances to Pakistan at more than $4.5bn annually, followed by the
UAE, with over $3.47bn, according to official statistics.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/pakistan-army-chief-meets-saudi-officials-amid-strained-ties/articleshow/77621421.cms
--------
WHO wants to use
Peshawar police hospital as focal point in medical emergencies
Ashfaq Yusufzai
19 Aug 2020
PESHAWAR: Police
and Services Hospital Peshawar, which served as the only dedicated hospital for
Covid-19 patients in the country, has played an important role in managing the
coronavirus patients, according to experts.
Senior health
officials and World Health Organisation have expressed satisfaction over the
performance of the hospital and want to use it a focal point in case of medical
emergencies in future.
The hospital was
established before partition and called Civil Surgeon Hospital then. It
remained a dedicated coronavirus centre from February 3, 2020 to August 13,
2020 and screened 11,303 suspected patients of whom 1,709 turned positive.
It earned name
for itself for being the lone dedicated hospital throughout the country that
collected swabs and provided treatment when there was a general fear among the
health workers everywhere.
Experts laud
country’s only dedicated hospital for Covid-19 patients
Medical specialist
Dr Asif Izhar, who led the efforts along with medical superintendent, said that
a total of 32 staffers also got infected during the pandemic but there was no
looking back and all the 297 its workers including doctors, nurses, paramedics
and Class-IV employees worked in three shifts to deal with the situation.
He said that
their staff visited airports, Chief Minister Secretariat, Governor’s House and
Civil Secretariat to examine suspected patients and take swabs from them. He
said that in the early days, they imparted training to all staff including
Class-IV employees and sweepers to ensure better management and corona waste
management, because it was a big threat. No professional help was sought from
other hospitals, he added.
“We admitted 203
patients and referred 25 serious ones to the medical teaching institutions for
intensive care services. During the six-month convid-19 operations, we recorded
three deaths,” said Dr Asif.
He said that
they pioneered Covid-19 screening as suspected people were referred from all
MTIs and swabs were collected and sent to Public Health Reference Laboratory at
Khyber Medical University. Later in June, HMC and KTH got their own
laboratories and started swab collection, he added.
Dr Asif said
that the initial days were difficult but staff was given on-job training.
Before onset of Covid-19, the hospital received 700 patients on average per day
for specialised medical, surgical, gynae, eye, ENT, chest, skin, children,
cardiology, radiology and dentistry services. It was re-opened last week for
general patients and at the moment patients were seen at OPD only, he added.
“Presently, we
are not starting surgeries and admission, keeping in view that if Covid-19
flares up again. So, we are waiting,” said Dr Asif.
He said that their
dedicated efforts and team work proved that they could deal with any medical
emergency in the province.
Dr Asif was not
disappointed by lack of appreciation by the government but said that he took
pride that it was proven to everyone that the hospital could be used as focal
point for any public health emergency in the province.
The hospital
didn’t receive any special funds or risk allowance for the staffers, who all
were involved in Covid-19 work.
He said that
originally they had 60 beds but to ensure social distancing, they admitted 30
Covid-19 patients.
The patients
along with their attendants received three meals per day that were provided in
collaboration with the Al Khidmat Foundation during the pandemic, he added.
“Our Covid-19
management mechanism was in line with the guidelines of the WHO and National
Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad. Our hospital was visited thrice by NIH
team, twice by WHO team and once by Dr Palitha Mahipala, the contry
representative of WHO, because it was a unique facility in the country,” said
Dr Asif.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1575124/who-wants-to-use-peshawar-police-hospital-as-focal-point-in-medical-emergencies
--------
MQM-P accuses
Sindh CM of ‘sabotaging’ proposed committee on Karachi
Azfar-ul-Ashfaque
19 Aug 2020
KARACHI: The
political consensus among the stakeholders of Karachi appears to be eroding
fast as the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan on Tuesday accused Sindh Chief
Minister Murad Ali Shah of “sabotaging” the recent efforts to find a solution
to Karachi’s civic and infrastructure problems.
Only on
Saturday, the Pakistan Peoples Party, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and MQM-P had,
in the presence of a senior member of the security establishment, agreed to
form an advisory committee comprising representatives of the three parties for
Karachi in a meeting held at the Governor House.
On Sunday, CM’s
Law Adviser Murtaza Wahab told the media that the committee would be headed by
CM Shah and comprise Sindh ministers Nasir Shah and Saeed Ghani of the PPP,
federal ministers Asad Umar and Ali Zaidi of the PTI and Aminul Haque of the
MQM-P.
However,
speaking at a press conference here at the party’s temporary headquarters in
Bahadurabad, senior MQM-P leader Khawaja Izharul Hasan said that the chief
minister “sabotaged” the process to form the three-party committee when he told
a press conference on Monday that “under no condition would Sindh share powers
with anyone” and that a committee was formed between governments and not
political parties.
“It is beyond
our comprehension that why the chief minister had made cleanliness of Karachi a
matter of his ego. He [CM] is the head of solid waste department but they
cannot even lift garbage from the city. They have deliberately destroyed the
local government system of Karachi,” he said.
He said the
MQM-P believed that the mere formation of committees was not the solution of
Karachi’s problems as a permanent solution lay only with an empowered local
government system under Article 140-A of the Constitution.
‘PPP separated
Karachi from Sindh’
Responding to
the CM’s Monday presser, Khawaja Izhar questioned why they made it an issue of
Sindh’s unity when the MQM-P demanded just resources for their city.
The CM had said
at the press conference that the people talking about bifurcation of Sindh were
the enemies of Pakistan and that the division of the province was not possible
“in our lives”.
Khawaja Izhar
said that the PPP government had itself separated Karachi from Sindh by
dividing the city into six parts.
The MQM-P leader
alleged that the PPP had started misleading youths on the pretext of a threat
to Sindh whenever the people of Karachi talked about their rights or even
demanded just share of water.
He asked youths
of Larkana, Qambar-Shahdadkot, Dadu and other rural parts of Sindh to hold
their elected representatives accountable for not providing better civic
facilities in their areas.
He alleged that
the provincial ministers and government officials were minting money and not
spending funds even in the rural parts of the province. “The Sindh government
has turned Karachi into Larkana and Larkana into Moenjodaro.”
Khawaja Izhar,
who is also an MPA, said that Karachi needed 1,200mgd water but it was not
given even 500mgd. He said that the cost of the K-IV water project had
increased from Rs25 billion to Rs125bn because of the “incompetence” of the
Sindh government.
He said around
200,000 government jobs of Karachi had been sold to the people of rural Sindh
and when questions were raised the PPP termed it an attack on unity of Sindh.
‘Karachi
Conference’ soon
He said that the
MQM-P had decided to call an “all-party conference” titled Karachi Conference
for the solution of problems of Karachi as well as to strengthen Sindh and
Pakistan.
Without giving
any date, he said that the MQM would also raise the issues of Larkana and Dadu
in addition to the issues of Karachi in its MPC.
He said
proposals had been sought from youths, civil society, traders, etc for the
proposed conference.
He said that
Karachi was deceived in the name of 18th Amendment under which “corrupt rulers”
got more powers than the people.
Speaking on the
occasion, bureaucrat-turned-politician Javed Hanif said that Karachi was made
Pakistan’s capital after independence.
He asked why the
country’s capital was shifted from Karachi, under whose mandate and under which
law.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1575170/mqm-p-accuses-sindh-cm-of-sabotaging-proposed-committee-on-karachi
--------
Mideast
Rumours swirl
about ex-president as potential Erdogan challenger
August 19, 2020
ANKARA: Rumors
are swirling in Turkey about the possibility of former President Abdullah Gul
being the opposition’s pick to challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the
2023 elections.
The two men
founded the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) together in 2001.
Gul was
president between 2007 and 2014 when Erdogan was prime minister. But Gul has
become a staunch critic of his former ally in the last few years.
In an interview
on Aug. 17, the leader of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Kemal
Kilicdaroglu said the government was “very scared” about a Gul candidacy.
But Gul has been
criticized by some secular sections of society for remaining silent while power
became increasingly centralized over the years without any effective checks and
balances in place.
He is also known
to be steering the newly founded breakaway Democracy and Progress Party, which
was founded by the country’s former economy czar Ali Babacan.
Kilicdaroglu
denied claims he was talking with Gul each week.
“Those who make
accusations about ‘weekly meetings’ are under some others’ control and they are
psychologically troubled individuals,” he said.
Gul is keeping
quiet about a potential presidential comeback, although many think Turkey needs
a better challenger.
Karol
Wasilewski, an analyst at the Warsaw-based Polish Institute of International
Affairs, viewed the CHP’s possible nomination of Gul as a reflection of the
changes the party had undergone under Kilicdaroglu, who decided that the CHP
should be more open to conservative values in order to better compete with the
AKP. But he thought it was a bad idea to have Gul take on Erdogan for several
reasons.
“First of all if
they want to have a candidate acceptable to some AKP voters and able to compete
with Erdogan, Ankara’s opposition mayor Mansur Yavas and Istanbul’s opposition
mayor Ekrem Imamoglu seem to be far better choices, because of Gul’s image as a
political impotent due to his constant inability to stand up to Erdogan,”
Wasilewski told Arab News.
“Gul is not a
political fighter able to defeat Erdogan contrary to, for example, the much
younger and vigorous Imamoglu.”
According to
Wasilewski, Gul’s nomination would discourage lots of CHP sympathizers from
voting and this scenario would directly help Erdogan’s chances of winning.
“Lately there
has been lots of criticism toward the AKP that it does not understand the
younger generation which will most probably be decisive in 2023 elections. The
nomination of Gul will show us that the CHP also has no clue as to how to
approach younger voters as I can’t imagine Abdullah Gul would be able to
attract Generation Z voters,” he added.
Berk Esen, a
political analyst from Bilkent University in Ankara, said although some people
portrayed Gul as a compromise candidate who could attract some AKP voters to
defeat Erdogan, there was little proof that Gul actually resonated with the AKP
base, which had been bombarded with anti-Gul discourse by pro-government media
for years.
“Opposition
voters also do not trust him due to his complicity in many of the AKP
government’s measures as well as conspicuous silence since he stepped down from
the presidency in 2014,” he told Arab News.
According to
Esen, a Gul candidacy did not stand much of a chance and would almost certainly
generate a challenge from the CHP camp.
Turkey’s
political landscape changed dramatically after the opposition’s victory in last
year’s local elections.
Esen remarked
that the opposition had younger, more competent and credible candidates so it
was difficult to contemplate a scenario in which Gul could energize the
opposition voters, let alone draw votes from the AKP base.
“This debate
around names is not a productive one but may push many in the opposition to
contemplate the candidate nomination process. The CHP leadership may be pushed
to allow open primaries to choose its candidate,” he added.
Dimitar Bechev,
a nonresident fellow at Atlantic Council, said that nominating Gul would be a
smart move but only if the opposition rallied behind him.
“Lots of
secularists have hard feelings against him as Erdogan’s enabler,” he told Arab
News. “He didn’t step up against Erdogan during the anti-government Gezi
protests either in 2013.”
Gul was mostly
in favor of dialogue with the protesters and listening to their demands. Bechev
said that if the opposition vote consolidated to back him, and some AKP
supporters defected, then there would be a runoff.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1721506/middle-east
--------
Iran Thanks
Putin for UNSC Meeting Offer, But Says Initiative Unlikely to Break Ground
Aug 19, 2020
“As explained
before, we understand Mr. Putin’s good will to decrease tensions but meantime,
think that effectiveness of such a meeting is unlikely given the lack of any
sincerity in the US government,” Government Spokesman Ali Rabiyee said on
Wednesday.
He noted that
Iran’s views are fully clear.
Yet, the
spokesman said Iran will study and declare its final view once all the relevant
parties officially demand holding such a
meeting.
Putin on Friday
proposed a video summit with the United States and the remaining parties to the
nuclear deal - Britain, France, China, Germany and Iran - to try to avoid
further "confrontation and escalation" at the United Nations over
Iran.
"The issue
is urgent," Putin said in a statement, adding that the alternative was
"only further escalation of tensions, increasing risk of conflict - such a
scenario must be avoided".
US President
Donald Trump, a stern critic of the historic deal, unilaterally pulled
Washington out of the JCPOA in May 2018, and unleashed the “toughest ever”
sanctions against the Islamic Republic in defiance of global criticism in an
attempt to strangle the Iranian oil trade, but to no avail since its
"so-called maximum pressure policy" has failed to push Tehran to the
negotiating table.
In response to
the US’ unilateral move, Tehran has so far rowed back on its nuclear
commitments four times in compliance with Articles 26 and 36 of the JCPOA, but
stressed that its retaliatory measures will be reversible as soon as Europe
finds practical ways to shield the mutual trade from the US sanctions.
Tehran has
particularly been disappointed with failure of the three European signatories
to the JCPOA -- Britain, France and Germany -- to protect its business
interests under the deal after the United States' withdrawal.
On January 5,
Iran took a final step in reducing its commitments, and said it would no longer
observe any operational limitations on its nuclear industry, whether concerning
the capacity and level of uranium enrichment, the volume of stockpiled uranium
or research and development.
Now the US has
stepped up attempts aimed at extending the UN arms ban on Iran that is set to
expire as part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which has
been endorsed by Security Council Resolution 2231.
The US first
sought to extend the Iran's arms embargo in a fresh UNSC resolution in
contradiction to the contents of the Resolution 2231 in two attempts within a
month, but failed.
The United
Nations Security Council resoundingly rejected on Friday the second US bid to
extend an arms embargo on Iran, which is due to expire in October.
The resolution
needed support from nine of 15 votes to pass. Eleven members abstained,
including France, Germany and Britain, while the US and the Dominican Republic
were the only “yes” votes.
The United
States has become isolated over Iran at the Security Council following
President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the multilateral Iran nuclear deal 2018.
Iran had said
that the US resolution would fail to gain the required support at the Security
Council, pointing out that Washington has no legal right to invoke a snapback
mechanism to reinstate sanctions against Tehran under the 2015 nuclear deal
that the US unilaterally left in May 2018.
In relevant
remarks on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said it is by
no means justifiable for the US to use Dispute Resolution Mechanism with regard
to UNSC Resolution 2231.
"US
recourse to Dispute Resolution Mechanism in 2231 has NO LEG TO STAND ON,"
Zarif wrote on his Twitter page late Sunday.
"AmbJohnBolton
has repeated today what he said on May 8, 2018, while National Security Advisor
in the Trump administration," he noted, adding, "At least he is
consistent—a trait notably absent in this US administration."
Zarif' tweet
came in reaction to former US National Security Advisor John Bolton's article
in Wall Street Journal where he criticized US' decision to trigger ‘snapback
mechanism’ against Iran, saying, "The agreement [Joint Comprehensive Plan
of Action]’s backers argue that Washington, having withdrawn from the deal, has
no standing to invoke its provisions. They’re right. It’s too cute by half to
say we’re in the nuclear deal for purposes we want but not for those we
don’t."
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990529000169
--------
Official:
Results of Human Trials of Iran's COVID-19 Vaccine Out by November
Aug 19, 2020
"Three
centers in Iran are working on vaccines and animal trials of the Iranian
vaccine have been carried out successfully, and we will probably see the
results of the human testing phase in November," Zali said.
He pointed out
that one of the top European companies in the field of vaccine production
recently said that the coronavirus vaccine can provide safety for only 73 days.
Regarding the
restrictions on coronavirus in the Iranian capital, Zali said that many
restrictions will stay in place until autumn, adding, "We are trying to
prevent an increase in the spread of the disease by holding schools and
universities electronically in the autumn."
Pointing to the
favorable situation of COVID-19 management in Tehran, he said that at the
beginning of the outbreak of the disease, the rate of the observance of health
protocols in the capital was 65 percent, but unfortunately with the end of the
first wave of the disease, this number declined to nine percent. But currently,
the rate of observance of protocols in Tehran is 73 percent
Regarding the
buying of the Russian vaccine, Zali said that after the approval of
international organizations such as the World Health Organization, Iran will
take action to buy this vaccine.
"We have no
problem in producing drugs and we produce two drugs, Favipiravir and
Remdesivir, and next week the mass production of these two drugs will begin and
we are self-sufficient in producing masks," he concluded.
In relevant
remarks earlier this month, Head of Pasteur Institute of Iran Alireza Biglari
announced that the country’s experts are studying the possibility for starting
the human trial phase for the home-made coronavirus vaccine following positive
animal tests results.
“Fortunately,
two of our knowledge-based companies have carried out good studies in this
field and their vaccine (formula) is in the phase of animal tests and in case
of positive results, they will enter the phase of human trial research,”
Biglari told reporters.
Meantime, a
senior member of the scientific committee of the national coronavirus campaign
headquarters, Minou Mohrez, told FNA that the Iranian researchers have made
progress in the production of anti-COVID-19 virus.
She said that
the Iran-made coronavirus vaccine has successfully passed animal tests, and
studies for human trials are being carried out.
In relevant
remarks in early August, Iranian Health Minister Saeed Namaki said that the
country’s medical specialists and scientists are now testing the home-made
coronavirus vaccine on humans.
“Along with
other world states, we have started work on [coronavirus] vaccine in our knowledge-based
companies, Pasteur Institute of Iran and Razi Institute,” Namaki told reporters
in a virtual meeting.
“Today, I can
say that this multilateral cooperation has made some progress in developing
three to four vaccines and these vaccines have passed tests on animals and have
entered the human trial phase,” he added.
Namaki said that
the Iranian government has also adopted the necessary action to purchase
vaccine from the countries that might manage to develop it sooner than Iran.
Earlier this
month, Namaki had announced that 5 groups of specialized researchers in Iran
were trying to find the coronavirus vaccine, adding that the clinical studies
on the vaccine would start soon.
“At present, at
least 5 groups of highly skilled Iranian groups are working on production of
[coronavirus] vaccine in Iran and clinical studies on the vaccine’s effect on
humans is due to start very soon,” Namaki said in a video conference with his
Nicaraguan counterpart Martha Reyes Alvarez.
He added that
Iran has also produced Favipiravir and Remdesivir, two drugs believed to be of
help in fighting the coronavirus, saying that the Iran-made Remdesivir will be
provided to the patients soon.
Namaki said that
Iran produces 97% of drugs needed in the country, stressing readiness to share
experiences with Nicaragua in the field of health and hygiene.
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990529000424
--------
Iran
Categorically Rejects CNN’s Claim of Paying Bounties to Taliban to Target US
Forces
Aug 18, 2020
“The US has
engulfed itself in a quagmire in Afghanistan and the blood of the US soldiers
is shed thousands of miles far from their homeland due to the wrong policies of
the White House rulers and of course, this has yielded no results for the
innocent Afghan people, but years of war and bloodshed,” Foreign Ministry
Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Tuesday.
He strongly
dismissed the CNN’s report claiming that the “US intelligence agencies
determined that Iran paid bounties to the Taliban to target US troops and
coalition forces in Afghanistan”, and said, “The US government has no answer to
the family members of the US soldiers killed in Afghanistan and it wants to
cover up its miscalculation in Afghanistan through media hype.”
Khatibzadeh
called on the US to act responsibly instead of projecting the blame on others
and end its catastrophic deployment in Afghanistan as soon as possible.
Khatibzadeh had
also on Monday categorically dismissed the recent allegations by the US
officials that Tehran was providing weapons to the Taliban in order to fight
Washington's influence in Afghanistan.
“The baseless
accusations by the US secretary of state are only a projection aimed at
distorting the public opinion in Afghanistan from Washington’s aides to ISIL
terrorists,” he said.
“The current
situation in Afghanistan is the result of the US’ warmongering and
interferences in the country,” the spokesman said, adding, “The US is yet to
inform the Afghan public of the identity of the helicopters that supplied ISIL
under the NATO disguise in Afghanistan.”
Iran has opposed
the US military occupation of Afghanistan, and has expressed readiness to
cooperate with any effort for intra-Afghan dialog.
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990528001084
--------
Israel bombs
Gaza, warns Hamas is was risking ‘war’
19 August 2020
Israeli
warplanes bombed the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip overnight after Palestinians fired
a rocket into southern Israel, the army said.
The latest
exchange came as Israel warned Hamas it was risking “war” by failing to stop
fire balloons being launched across the border.
Egyptian
security officials shuttled between the two sides in a bid to end the flare-up
which has seen more than a week of rocket and fire balloon attacks from Gaza
and nightly Israeli reprisals.
For all the
latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
“Earlier
tonight, a rocket was fired and during the day, explosive and arson balloons
were launched from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory,” said a military
statement released shortly before midnight (2100 GMT).
In response,
“fighter jets and (other) aircraft struck additional Hamas military targets in
the Gaza Strip.
“During the
strike, a military compound belonging to one of the special arrays of the Hamas
terror organization was struck,” the English language statement added.
There were no
reports from Gaza of casualties.
Israeli
President Reuven Rivlin issued a warning to Hamas during a visit to
firefighters in the border area who said they were called out to 40 blazes
caused by Palestinian arson balloons on Tuesday.
“Terrorism using
incendiary kites and balloons is terrorism just like any other,” Rivlin told
them, according to a statement from his office.
“Hamas should
know that this is not a game. The time will come when they have to decide... If
they want war, they will get war,” said Rivlin, whose post is largely
ceremonial.
Israel and Hamas
have fought three wars since 2008.
Despite a truce
last year backed by Egypt, the United Nations and Qatar, Hamas and Israel clash
sporadically, with Palestinian incendiary balloons or rocket or mortar fire
drawing retaliatory Israeli strikes and sanctions against civilians in Gaza.
A Hamas source
told AFP the Islamists had held talks with the Egyptian delegation in Gaza on
Monday before it left the territory for meetings with the Israelis and the West
Bank-based Palestinian Authority.
The Egyptian
delegation was expected to return to Gaza after those talks were concluded, the
source added.
In response to
the persistent balloon attacks, Israel has banned fishing off Gaza’s coast and
closed the Kerem Shalom goods crossing, cutting off deliveries of fuel to the
territory’s sole power plant.
Power had been
in short supply even before the shutdown, with consumers having access to mains
electricity for only around eight hours a day.
That will now be
cut to just four hours a day using power supplied from the Israeli grid.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/08/19/Israel-bombs-Gaza-warns-Hamas-is-was-risking-war-.html
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US must swiftly
end catastrophic presence in Afghanistan: Iran
18 August 2020
Iran has
dismissed as “utterly bogus” the claims in some US media reports that other
states are offering bounties to Taliban militants for killing American troops
in Afghanistan, saying Washington must end its “catastrophic presence” in the
war-torn country instead of blaming others for the crisis there.
“The US
government — which has no answer to give to the families of its soldiers killed
in Afghanistan — is seeking to cover up its miscalculation in Afghanistan
through media hype,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said
on Tuesday.
He added that
the US is bogged down in a self-created quagmire in Afghanistan, while the
blood of American soldiers is shed thousands of miles away from their own
country due to the White House’s wrong policies, which have brought nothing but
“years of war and bloodshed for the innocent Afghan people.”
The Iranian
officials called on the US to act responsibly and end its destructive presence
in Afghanistan as soon as possible instead of pointing the finger of blame at
others.
Khatibzadeh also
on Monday rejected “baseless” claims by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that
Tehran arms the Taliban, saying the allegation seeks to deflect attention from
the American assistance to Daesh in Afghanistan.
“The accusations
leveled by the US secretary of state amount to a type of blame game and an
attempt at diverting the public opinion from Washington’s instances of
assistance to Daesh,” he said.
Pompeo claimed
last week, “We know that the Russians have armed the Taliban in the past,
right. We know that the Iranians continue to arm them today.”
Earlier this
week, the CNN claimed that Tehran had paid bounties to a Taliban faction, the
Haqqani Network, for killing US and other foreign troops in Afghanistan,
leading to six attacks last year including a deadly one at the US airbase in
Bagram.
In June, the New
York Times, citing an unnamed source, claimed that a top-secret unit within the
Russian military intelligence, or the GRU, had allegedly offered monetary
rewards to Taliban-linked militants to kill US troopers in the country last
year.
Russia dismissed
the claims as a bunch of “lies.”
The United
States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 under the banner of following the September
11 attacks in order to wage a “war on terror” thousands of miles away from
America’s own borders.
The invasion
toppled the Taliban militant group, but the group now controls more territory
than at any point since being ousted from power and is engaged in peace talks
with the United States.
Daesh has also
gone from strength to strength, especially in eastern Afghanistan, after
suffering crushing defeats in Syria and Iraq.
At the time of
Syrian and Iraqi advances, various sources reported and regional officials
confirmed that the US military was airlifting Daesh militants from battlefields
and transferring them to Afghanistan.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/08/18/632081/Saeed-Khatibzadeh-Iran-Afghanistan-US-troops-bounties-
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Africa
Turkey, Qatar
agree to provide GNA mercenaries with Libyan citizenship: Sources
19 August 2020
Turkey, Qatar
and Libya’s Government of National Accord have agreed to grant Syrian, Somali,
and Tunisian mercenaries Libyan passports and integrate them into the GNA
forces under Turkish supervision, sources confirmed to Al Arabiya.
“The supervision
and training under Turkey will be held within the al-Watiya airbase and Tripoli
International Airport with Qatari financial support and assigning them to
specific tasks, including securing and protecting government headquarters that
belong to al-Wefaq (GNA) so that the government will not be blackmailed by the
Libyan local militias,” one source said.
For all the
latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
Qatar and Turkey
signed an agreement on Tuesday to send military advisers and instructors for
the armed forces of Libya's GNA government.
"We have
reached an agreement with Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and Qatar's
(minister) Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah on tripartite cooperation to build a
military institute for training," said the GNA's Deputy Defense Minister
Salah al-Namrouch.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/north-africa/2020/08/19/Turkey-Qatar-agree-to-provide-GNA-mercenaries-with-Libyan-citizenship-Sources.html
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Mali’s president
and prime minister held by mutinous troops
August 18, 2020
BAMAKO, Mali:
Soldiers detained Mali’s president and prime minister Tuesday after surrounding
a residence and firing into the air in an apparent coup attempt after several
months of demonstrations calling for President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita’s ouster.
The soldiers
moved freely through the streets of Bamako, making it increasingly clear that
they were in control of the capital city. There was no immediate comment from
the troops, who hailed from the same military barracks in Kati where an earlier
coup originated more than eight years ago.
United Nations
head Antonio Guterres demanded “the immediate and unconditional release” of
Mali’s president and members of his government Tuesday after they were seized
by rebel soldiers.
“The
secretary-general strongly condemns these actions and calls for the immediate
restoration of constitutional order and rule of law in Mali,” a spokesman for
Guterres said in a statement.
The dramatic
escalation capped off a day of political chaos in Mali, where the UN and former
colonizer France have spent more than seven years trying to stabilize the
country since a 2012 coup allowed an extremist insurgency to take hold in the
West African nation.
The unrest
kicked off earlier in the day in the garrison town of Kati, where the previous
coup had originated under similar circumstances eight years earlier. The
soldiers took weapons from the armory at the barracks, and then detained senior
military officers.
Anti-government
protesters cheered the soldiers’ actions, some setting fire to a building that
belongs to Mali’s justice minister.
Prime Minister
Boubou Cisse, who was believed to be sheltering with Keita, urged the soldiers
to put down their arms and put the interests of the nation first.
“There is no
problem whose solution cannot be found through dialogue,” he said in a
communique.
Earlier in the
day, government workers fled their offices as armed men began detaining people
including the country’s finance minister Abdoulaye Daffe.
“Officials are
being arrested — it’s total confusion,” said an officer at Mali’s Ministry of
Internal Security.
Mali’s
president, who was democratically elected and has broad support from France and
other Western allies, was believed to be sheltering with the prime minister at
the private residence in Bamako’s Sebenikoro neighborhood.
As the day wore
on, Malians tuned in to state broadcaster ORTM, where the 2012 coup leader
announced he was now in charge. The channel only carried classroom lessons and
cartoons among other pre-recorded programming.
The regional
bloc known as ECOWAS that has been mediating Mali’s current political crisis
urged the soldiers to return immediately to their barracks in Kati, which is
only 15 kilometers (less than 10 miles) from the presidential palace in the
capital.
France echoed
those concerns, with Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian condemned the
soldiers’ actions as did the State Department’s special envoy for the Sahel
region.
“The US is
opposed to all unconstitutional changes of government whether in the streets or
by security forces,” tweeted J. Peter Pham.
The developments
Tuesday bore a troubling resemblance to the events leading up to the 2012
military coup, which ultimately unleashed years of chaos in Mali when the
ensuing power vacuum allowed extremists to seize control of northern towns.
Ultimately a French-led military operation ousted the extremists but they
merely regrouped and then expanded their reach during Keita’s presidency.
On March 21,
2012, a similar mutiny erupted at the Kati military camp as rank-and-file
soldiers began rioting and then broke into the camp’s armory. After grabbing
weapons they later headed for the seat of government, led by then Capt. Amadou
Haya Sanogo.
Sanogo was later
forced to hand over power to a civilian transitional government that then
organized elections. Keita emerged from a field of more than two dozen
candidates to win that 2013 vote with more than 77 percent of the vote. His
popularity, though, has plummeted since his 2018 re-election.
Regional
mediators have urged Keita to share power in a unity government but those
overtures were swiftly rejected by opposition leaders who said they would not
stop short of Keita’s ouster.
The current
president has faced growing criticism of how his government has handled the
relentless insurgency engulfing the country once praised as a model of
democracy in the region. The military faced a wave of particularly deadly
attacks in the north last year, prompting the government to close its most
vulnerable outposts as part of a reorganization aimed at stemming the losses.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1721381/world
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Burkina Faso’s
new conflict front: Jihadists against jihadists
17 August 2020
When 60 jihadists
were killed and 40 captured in Burkina Faso’s northern Sahel region one day in
April, the country’s beleaguered armed forces didn’t claim victory: A rival
jihadist group did.
The attack was
among three reports of infighting in as many days between the al-Qaeda linked
Group to Support Islam and Muslims (JNIM) and the Islamic State in the Greater
Sahara (ISGS), a regional offshoot of the so-called Islamic State.
The rival
organisations, which had previously tolerated each other – appearing to even
cooperate on some level – are now in open conflict. And as competition over
territory heats up and ideological differences become increasingly pronounced,
civilians are bearing the brunt of much of the violence.
The infighting
has added a dangerous new dimension to an already multi-sided conflict that has
uprooted nearly one million people in Burkina Faso – the vast majority since
January last year – and left more than three million severely food insecure,
compared to 680,000 by this time in 2019.
More than 90
people have been killed in the country overall this year in 10 separate clashes
between the two jihadist groups – up from just one such recorded death in a
single skirmish last year, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event
Data Project (ACLED), a conflict monitoring group.
Some hoped the
clashes – also occurring in neighbouring Mali – might weaken one or both groups
as combatants and resources are allocated away from targeting civilians,
military personnel, and local fighters defending their homes and villages
against the militants.
But Sahel
analysts told The New Humanitarian that people living in affected areas risk
being caught in the crossfire and having to flee their homes, while residents
who have experienced the violence said they also fear revenge attacks by losing
parties.
And as
territorial control shifts between the two groups – JNIM are currently in the
ascendancy – combatants have increasingly been spotted in areas where they
weren’t previously known to be active, making it harder for humanitarian
organisations in Burkina Faso to know who to engage with.
“When the
movement of these groups is so fluid, everything becomes more blurred in terms
of mediation, peacebuilding and access, and negotiations for aid groups,” said
Flore Berger, a Sahel research analyst at the International Institute for
Strategic Studies.
“Everything just
becomes more difficult.”
What started it?
JNIM was formed
in 2017 as a coalition of al-Qaeda-affiliated groups that have been the
dominant jihadist force in the Sahel since the first emerged in the early
2000s. Led by Malian militant Iyad Ag Ghaly, the group is active in both Mali
and Burkina Faso.
ISGS was formed
in 2015 as an al-Qaeda splinter, and is led by Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi from
Western Sahara. It has gained ground over the past couple of years – even as
its parent organisation in the Middle East has experienced the reverse –
launching a string of mass attacks in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. French and
regional counter-terrorism forces say it is now their main target.
Unlike countries
such as Yemen and Syria, where IS and al-Qaeda factions have long been openly
hostile to each other, the groups had previously tolerated their coexistence in
the Sahel. Some even called the once-cordial relationship the “Sahelian
exception”.
Leaders with
common militant roots met on multiple occasions to discuss possible
cooperation, said Berger, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
At times, they shared intelligence or assisted each other logistically, she
said, citing the kidnapping of two French hostages in Benin in May 2019 as one
example, and attacks against military positions in Burkina Faso’s Sahel region
in August of last year as another.
“They
deconflicted, or at least opted to not carry out attacks on one another in
favour of targeting military and peacekeeping forces in the region,” added
Julie Coleman, a senior research fellow at The International Centre for
Counter-Terrorism.
But turf wars
broke out as ISGS expanded into JNIM territory, while ideological differences
became more marked as JNIM expressed a willingness to negotiate with the Malian
government – an idea opposed by ISGS, which then poached rival fighters who
felt their leaders had gone soft.
Small-scale
clashes led to a crisis meeting between ISGS and JNIM leaders last September in
Mali that was designed to cool things down and define territories. The
situation reportedly turned sour when four ISGS members were detained and
imprisoned.
The rivalry
deepened this year, with both groups intensifying their propaganda messages
through radio broadcasts and print media. Islamic State’s weekly newspaper
al-Naba accused JNIM of waging war against its supporters, while its combatants
called rival leaders “fake” and “bad Muslims” in audio recordings heard by TNH.
Several days of
clashes in April resulted in 80 deaths in Burkina Faso’s Sahel region. And
hostilities had worsened by June to the point that JNIM members were pictured
in eastern parts of the country wearing turquoise headbands to differentiate friend
from foe, signalling “all-out war”, according to Heni Nsaibia, a researcher at
ACLED.
Caught in the
crossfire
While the
clashes could weaken one if not both of the groups, they put “civilians
remaining in the area (who) haven’t fled to refugee camps at risk”, said Rida
Lyammouri, a Sahel researcher at the Policy Center for the New South, a
Morocco-based think tank.
When fighting
between JNIM and ISGS erupted in Tongomayel commune in northern Burkina Faso in
April, JNIM regained an area previously controlled by its rival, allowing
civilians – some of whom view the group as less brutal than ISGS – to return
home.
But one resident
of the area told TNH that his neighbours now fear ISGS retaliation should the
situation change. “If ISGS gets strong again and retaliates, they’ll try to
show people that they shouldn’t be disobeyed,” said the man.
Though both
organisations target civilians, the local man – whose name TNH is not using to
protect his safety – said JNIM is referred to by local residents as “the kind
ones”, and that people generally prefer living under its control.
After reclaiming
territory in the area, the man said JNIM fighters reopened some transport
routes that had been blocked; allowed aid to flow into villages; and even
apologised to people living in areas that had been attacked by ISGS.
But while JNIM
appears to have now pushed ISGS towards Burkina Faso’s eastern border with
Niger and Benin, ISGS members remain active all over the country, creating
operational challenges for humanitarian organisations and danger for civilians
who can get caught in the middle of clashes.
For example, on
a trip to the northwestern region of Boucle du Mouhoun in May, local security
forces told TNH that ISGS was active along the border with Mali – an area
typically considered a JNIM stronghold. After losses elsewhere, the Islamic
State combatants there appear eager to prove their strength.
Madou, a
27-year-old mechanic from Boucle du Mouhoun, said he was ambushed in May by
roughly 30 jihadists outside the northern town of Barani, less than 10
kilometers from the Malian border. Based on accounts of the incident, security
analysts told TNH the jihadists were likely ISGS fighters.
The gunmen
repeatedly screamed at the captives, insisting they were in control of key
towns and large swathes of the North and Sahel regions, despite evidence to the
contrary. “They kept shouting… ‘we control the whole area’,” said Madou, who
requested only his first name be used to protect his safety.
The mechanic was
set free, but heard that six of his approximately 20 fellow hostages were later
killed.
https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/2020/08/17/Burkina-Faso-Sahel-conflict-ISIS-al-Qaeda?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1448904_
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Jordan
reiterates two-state solution as ‘sole path’ to peace
August 19, 2020
DUBAI:
Abandoning Israeli annexation of Palestinian territories and a two-state
solution are needed to resolve the decades-long conflict and achieve a “just
peace” in the region, Jordan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by
national daily Jordan Times.
Foreign Minister
Ayman Safadi said the “sole path” to ending the conflict is abiding by the
two-state solution, which was drawn-up based on international legitimacy
resolutions, signed accords, and the Arab Peace Initiative.
Safadi
emphasized the need for the international community to intervene and encourage
negotiations towards the proposal, adding other alternatives would undermine
all peace opportunities.
Secretary of the
Central Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization Saeb Erekat, who had
a meeting with Safadi, thanked Jordan for its position on the Israel-Palestine
conflict.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1721616/middle-east
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Somalia: UN
condemns ‘brazen’ terrorist attack on beachside hotel
17 August 2020
The UN in
Somalia has strongly condemned a terrorist attack that took place on Sunday at
the Elite Hotel in the capital Mogadishu, which reportedly killed at least 16
people and left many others injured.
“This brazen
attack targeted civilians, including government workers, peacefully enjoying
their Sunday evening, causing many casualties”, the UN Special Representative
for Somalia, James Swan, said on Monday.
“This savagery
has no place in the country being built by Somalis and it merits the strongest
condemnation”, he added.
‘Abhorrent
attack’
In recent
months, the extremist group Al-Shabaab, which claimed responsibility for the
attack, has been increasing its assaults across the country.
The latest
attack involved a car bomb at the seaside hotel, reportedly followed by an
intense gun battle between the terrorists and Somali security forces.
According to
news reports, more than 200 people were rescued and five assailants were
counted among those killed.
“This abhorrent
attack should not and will not deter Somalis, and the entire United Nations
family in Somalia reaffirms its commitment to and solidarity with all
peace-loving Somalis in the face of such violence”, said the Special
Representative.
What happened?
News reports
detailed that after a car bomb exploded at the gates of the hotel on Lido
Beach, a popular destination on the seafront, militants swarmed the hotel’s
compound and engaged with security forces in a four-hour gun fight.
According to
media reports, Ismael Mukhtar Omar, the spokesperson for the Somali Information
Ministry, said that Somali special forces stormed the grounds and rescued more
than 200 people from inside the hotel.
Meanwhile, Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo asked “Allah for
quick recovery to all the citizens who have been injured”, and called on all
Somalis “to stand with their brothers”.
The UN in
Somalia expressed “its deepest condolences” to the victim’s families and wished
the injured a speedy recovery.
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/08/1070342?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1448904_
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Attacks
Targeting Aid Workers in Niger Are Latest in Worrying Spike
By Lisa Bryant
August 17, 2020
PARIS - New
findings out Monday show an alarming spike in attacks against humanitarian
workers last year, including in part of Africa’s Sahel region. That's where
some of the latest attacks took place last week against French and Nigerien
nationals.
France held a
memorial ceremony Friday for six French aid workers killed in Niger on August
9, along with two Nigeriens. It was one of a pair of strikes against French
humanitarian activists last week— last Monday, another was gunned down in
Guatemala.
The Niger attack
took place in a nature reserve outside the capital, Niamey — an area once
considered safe for humanitarian activity. But the Sahel region overall is
becoming increasingly violent. French troops are working with regional
counterparts to fight an Islamist insurgency.
It’s not the
only area of concern. Worldwide, last year marked the highest number of major
attacks against aid workers over the past decade — with 483 workers killed,
kidnapped and wounded, according to independent research group Humanitarian
Outcomes.
Report co-author
Abby Stoddard is a former humanitarian worker.
“Even though
there are attacks in dozens of countries, only a handful of the worst conflict
environments have numbers in the double and triple digits, and those drive the
totals,” Stoddard said.
Along with
years-long hotspots like Afghanistan, Syria, South Sudan and Somalia, there are
also some newcomers — like Mali, right next to Niger, from where the Sahel
insurgency spread.
Speaking on
French radio last week, Vincent Cochetel, a high-level official with the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, agreed aid workers are increasingly
becoming targeted in the Sahel and elsewhere.
Cochetel himself
spent nearly a year as a hostage in the Caucasus region, in the 1990s.
In and around
the Sahel, the humanitarian community is reeling from a spate of recent deadly
attacks. Along with the Niger killings, two aid workers were killed in
Cameroon. In June, extremist group Boko Haram executed six in northeastern
Nigeria’s Borno State.
As these attacks
become deadlier, they also reflect a frightening new normal. Conflicts once
pitting countries against each other are now increasingly splintered, involving
a tangle of armed groups — which no longer see aid workers as neutral or
beneficial.
“They are
associated often with the enemy, so they’re seen as legitimate targets — they
don’t have a moral issue with targeting them,” Stoddard said. "But it also
allows them to flex their muscles and exercise control over local populations
by controlling where the aid goes.”
Stoddard says
attacking aid workers also brings economic benefits — assailants gain vehicles,
humanitarian relief and cash, including through hostage ransoms.
Stoddard and
others say aid groups are responding by taking more precautions and adopting
new strategies to reduce operating risks. But there is no such thing as zero
risk — and in Niger and elsewhere, there are sometimes terrible outcomes.
https://www.voanews.com/africa/attacks-targeting-aid-workers-niger-are-latest-worrying-spike?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1448904_
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Europe
Brain damaged
London Bridge terror victim sues attackers’ estates
Thomas Harding
August 18, 2020
A man who
suffered severe brain damage three years ago during the London Bridge terrorist
attack by an ISIS-inspired gang is to sue the estates of the dead terrorists
Peter Lunt is
also taking the same legal action against the insurers of a vehicle rental
company after one of its vans was used in the atrocity, in which the extremists
killed eight people in 2017.
A claim was
taken to the High Court in London by Mr Lunt, 44.
He suffered
severe brain damage when the 2.5-tonne Renault van ploughed into crowds walking
over London Bridge just before 10pm on the Saturday, June 3.
The van, driven
by Khuram Butt, knocked one victim, Xavier Thomas, over the bridge railings and
into the Thames, where he drowned.
After hitting Mr
Lunt and his wife Tanya and other pedestrians, the three terrorists – Butt, 27,
Youssef Zaghba, 22, and Rachid Redouane, 30 – jumped out and went on a knife
rampage.
They stabbed
people at random in the restaurants and bars around Borough Market, south
London.
ISIS later
claimed the attack, which happened three months after a similar
vehicle-and-knife attack on Westminster Bridge in which a policeman was killed.
The terrorist
gang at Borough Market injured another 48 people, including Mr and Mrs Lunt,
and four unarmed police officers who tried to stop them.
The rampage,
which lasted about 11 minutes, ended when the terrorists, who were wearing fake
suicide vests, were shot dead by armed police.
Mr Lunt suffered
brain damage and severe injuries down his left side, which required eight
months of hospital treatment.
He has submitted
a claim to the High Court suing the estates of the two ringleaders of the gang,
Butt and Zaghba.
Mr Lunt, from
Spalding in Lincolnshire, is also taking legal action against Probus, who were
the insurers for the company that rented out the Renault van.
Other victims
are taking similar action, The Mail on Sunday reported.
Probus is
reported to have this year settled compensation claims with some of the victims
and relatives of some of those killed.
Mr Lunt had gone
to London with his wife Tanya, 46, for a weekend break. They were crossing
London Bridge after watching a comedy show.
Mrs Lunt told
the inquest in London after the atrocity that she heard people screaming then
someone shouting: “Run, run, there’s a van.”
“I think Pete
shouted at me, 'Run, we’ve got to run,' and we turned back to run in the direction
of the Shard,” she said.
“I had a feeling
it was a terrorist attack. I was pushed, hit and then everything went black.
"I couldn’t
see anything, just feel cold metal. I looked for Peter and I could see him
lying in the road.”
A spokesman for
Thompson Solicitors, specialists in pursuing personal injury claims, would not
comment when contacted by The National.
https://www.thenational.ae/world/europe/brain-damaged-london-bridge-terror-victim-sues-attackers-estates-1.1064906
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Former hardline
Home Sec Sajid Javid returns to corporate world
18 August 2020
In a move
underlining the revolving door between senior government positions and the
corporate world, former chancellor, Sajid Javid has accepted a job with US bank
JP Morgan.
The move has come
under greater scrutiny than normal because Javid used to work for the JP Morgan
office in New York in the 1990s before moving to Deutsche Bank.
It is believed
Javid’s new role involves acting as a “senior adviser” on the bank's advisory
council for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The US lender
said the following in a statement: “We are delighted to welcome Sajid [Javid]
back to JP Morgan as a senior adviser, and we look forward to drawing upon his
in-depth understanding of the business and economic environment to help shape
our client strategy across Europe”.
Javid’s new job
has been reportedly approved by the UK's Advisory Committee on Business
Appointments (ACOBA), which oversees jobs for former ministers and top civil
servants.
Ministers are
obliged to seek ACOBA’s approval if they want a job in the private sector
within two years of leaving office.
Javid was
effectively forced to resign as chancellor in February after he fell out with
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s chief strategist, Dominic Cummings.
Javid is
believed to have lost a bitter power struggle with Cummings over his refusal to
sack his advisers.
Prior to
becoming chancellor, Javid was Home Secretary between April 2018 and July 2019.
Javid was
notorious for his hardline policies as Home Secretary, notably his stepping up
of citizenship deprivation measures, whereby British citizens are arbitrarily
deprived of their nationality often on dubious national security grounds.
Javid is
believed to have signed off on at least 150 citizenship deprivation orders.
In addition,
Javid undertook a number of anti-Iranian measures as Home Secretary, notably
his proscription of the Lebanese Resistance group Hezbollah in February 2019.
As a prominent
member of the parliamentary lobby group, Conservative Friends of Israel, Javid
is an avowed Zionist and a strong supporter of current Israeli policies.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/08/18/632086/UK-Sajid-Javid-JP-Morgan-New-Appointment-
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URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/nia-arrests-ophthalmologist-abdur-rahman/d/122665