Placards Of PM Modi, Other World Leaders Raised At Pro-Freedom Rally In Pakistan's Sindh To Seek Their Intervention For The Freedom Of Sindhudesh
New Age Islam News Bureau
18 January 2021
• US Retains Terrorist Tag Of Pak-Based Lashkar-e-Taiba and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi
• Pakistani Ahmadis Accused Of Blasphemy For
Inscribing Islamic Phrases On Gravestones
• Nine Islamist Militants Of Bangladesh Give Up The
Armed Struggle, Saying Violence Is The Wrong Path
• UAE Fatwa Council: Islam Commands Every Muslim To
Stop The Spread Of Any Pandemic, Says, Vaccines Are Permissible For Muslims
Even If They Contain Pork Gelatine
• UK Demands China Grant UN Access To Xinjiang Over
Abuses
• More Than 80 People Killed In Militia Attack On
Sudan's West Darfur Region
India
• Placards Of PM Modi, Other World Leaders Raised At
Pro-Freedom Rally In Pakistan's Sindh To Seek Their Intervention For The
Freedom Of Sindhudesh
• Ayodhya Mosque: Construction To Begin On Republic
Day After A Flag Hoisting Ceremony, Architecture Likely To Resemble Kaaba in
Mecca
• Islamic Terrorist West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee
Will Have To Take Refuge In Bangladesh After Bengal Polls: UP Minister's
Shocker
• 'Love Jihad' Stems From Idea Of Stigmatising
Interfaith Marriages, Says Naseeruddin[N1] [N2]
Shah
• Surgical strikes in Pakistan gave public confidence
that borders are safe under Modi-led BJP govt: Amit Shah
• Uttar Pradesh government to take back 173 acres of
land of Azam Khan’s Jauhar Trust
• Pakistan army resorts to unprovoked firing along LoC
in J&K's Poonch
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North America
• US Retains Terrorist Tag Of Pak-Based Lashkar-e-Taiba
and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi
• Fifty Organizations urge Biden to reject Houthi
‘terrorist’ designation by Trump admin.
• Iranian missiles land within 100 miles from US
aircraft carrier: Fox News
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Pakistan
• Pakistani Ahmadis Accused Of Blasphemy For
Inscribing Islamic Phrases On Gravestones
• Imran Khan 'criminal': Nawaz Sharif questions
negligence in foreign funding case
• India spoiling Afghan peace process: Qureshi
• Hindu community leader demands protection for temple
in Pakistan's Havelian
• Govt under PDM pressure to resign by 31st: PML-N
• Power corridors far for Fazl, says Ashrafi
--------
South Asia
• Nine Islamist Militants Of Bangladesh Give Up The
Armed Struggle, Saying Violence Is The Wrong Path
• Gunmen Shoot Dead Two Women Judges Of Afghanistan's
Supreme Court In Kabul; Ashraf Ghani Blames Taliban
• Taliban praise continued US troop withdrawal from
Afghanistan
• Hefazat: Case over Shafi's death is fabricated
• Bangladesh Again Denies Al-Qaeda Presence
--------
Arab World
• UAE Fatwa Council: Islam Commands Every Muslim To
Stop The Spread Of Any Pandemic, Says, Vaccines Are Permissible For Muslims
Even If They Contain Pork Gelatine
• Egypt Seizes Assets Of Mursi, 88 Muslim Brotherhood
Members
• Lebanon’s Patriarch tells feuding President Aoun and
PM-designate Hariri to reconcile
• Beirut blast chemicals possibly linked to Syrian
businessmen: Report, company filing
• Saudi Arabia, Jordan’s FMs discuss regional issues in
Riyadh meeting
• PMU chief reiterates that US military forces must
withdraw from Iraq
• US-Led Military Convoy Enters Northeastern Syria
From Iraq: Report
--------
Europe
• UK Demands China Grant UN Access To Xinjiang Over
Abuses
• EU’s Borrell urges Israel to facilitate Palestinian
vote
• Belgian court postpones verdict in Iranian diplomat
case
• EU welcomes decision to hold elections in Palestine
--------
Africa
• More Than 80 People Killed In Militia Attack On
Sudan's West Darfur Region
• Nigeria Army Retakes Military Base From ISIS-Linked
Militants
• Sudanese Protesters Burn Israeli Flag, Condemn
Recent Normalization Deal
• Riots break out in several Tunisian cities for
second night
• Tunisia govt says dozens arrested during night
disturbances despite lockdown
• Libya envoys to vote on key proposal for new
executive: UN
• Tunisia set to lose millions in cash stashed in
Swiss banks by Ben Ali’s family
• Takfiri terrorists hit Nigeria army base in Borno,
take control
• Bomb explosion kills 6 in Somalia
• Mali: UN peacekeeper killed in terror attack
--------
Southeast Asia
• Dr Mahathir, Pejuang Lawmakers Apply To Join Lawsuit
On Agong’s Powers To Refuse Emergency Declaration
• Tok Mat: Govt should impose ‘health emergency’
rather than Emergency that renders Constitution, Parliament dysfunctional
--------
Mideast
• Tehran Deplores US’ Sanctioning of Iran’s Diplomats,
Warns of Lodging Lawsuit at ICJ
• IRGC Top Commander: Iran's Strategy Entails
Ballistic Missiles Raining Down on Hostile Warships
• IRGC Ballistic Missiles Destroy Naval Targets at
1,800km Distance
• Israel To Ban Groups That Call It An ‘Apartheid
State’
• Israeli warplanes hit Gaza after rocketfire: army
• Coronavirus: Israel exchanges medical data for
Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine doses
• Coronavirus: Israel Prison Service to vaccinate
Palestinian inmates
• Palestinian President Abbas briefs Egypt, Jordan on
election plan
• Israel approves hundreds of settlement homes in
last-minute push
• Russian freight ship sinks off Turkey’s Black Sea
coast - governor
• Iran’s long-range missile land close to US Navy
ships in Indian Ocean
• Distrust, division and doubt cloud Palestinian
election call
• Turkish court sentences former pro-Kurdish MP to
over six years in jail
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/placards-pm-modi-other-world/d/124095
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Placards Of PM Modi, Other World Leaders Raised At
Pro-Freedom Rally In Pakistan's Sindh To Seek Their Intervention For The
Freedom Of Sindhudesh
Jan 18, 2021
SANN [Pakistan]: In a massive pro-freedom rally
organised on the 117th birth anniversary of GM Syed, one of the founding
fathers of modern Sindhi nationalism, protesters raised the placards of Indian
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other world leaders to seek their intervention
for the freedom of Sindhudesh.
The people raised pro-freedom slogans during a massive
rally held in Syed's hometown of Sann in Jamshoro district of Pakistan's Sindh
province on Sunday. They claimed that Sindh is the home of Indus Valley
Civilisation and Vedic religion which was illegitimately occupied by the
British Empire and was delivered by them in the evil Islamist hands of Pakistan
in 1947.
"Among all these barbaric assaults on its history
and culture, and all these ages of occupation and dawns of independence Sindh
has retained and maintained its separate historical and cultural identity as a
pluralist, co-existent, tolerant and harmonious society where all the different
cultures, languages and ideas of the foreign and native people have not only
influenced each other but accepted and absorbed the common message of the human
civilisation," said Shafi Muhammad Burfat, Chairman of Jeay Sindh
Muttahida Mahaz. He added, "This historical synthesis of religions,
philosophies and civilisation from the east and west has given our motherland
Sindh a distinct place in the history of humanity". Burfat told ANI,
"While the Sindh gave India its name, the Sindh citizens who pioneered in
the fields of industry, philosophy, marine navigation, mathematics and
astronomy are today chained by the Islam-o-fascist terrorist unconstitutional
forced federation of Pakistan by the military might of Punjabi imperialism in
the name of Islam".
There are several nationalist parties in Sindh, who
are advocating for a free Sindh nation. They have been raising the issue on
various international platforms and calling Pakistan an occupier that continues
to exploit resources and involved in human rights violations in the region.
"Our nation believes in universal peace, unity of
humanity and human development and our country has remained as an independent
nation on the face of the earth for thousands of years. But today, it is
enslaved by Punjabi colonialism in the name of religion and through the might
of the military. The Sindhi people do not want to remain in the oppressive
slavery of the terrorist state of Pakistan, and therefore, we appeal to the
entire international community to step forward and support us in our struggle
for national independence from the fascist theocratic Islamist terrorist state
of Pakistan."Sindhudesh is a demand for a separate homeland for Sindhis
which was emerged in 1967 under the leadership of GM Syed and Pir Ali Mohammed
Rashdi. A large number of Sindhi nationalist leaders, activists and students
were disappeared, tortured and killed allegedly by Pakistan's security agencies
in the past few decades.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/placards-of-pm-modi-other-world-leaders-raised-at-pro-freedom-rally-in-pakistans-sindh/articleshow/80322316.cms
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US Retains Terrorist Tag Of Pak-Based Lashkar-e-Taiba
and Lashkar-i-Jhangvi
Jan 17, 2021
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. File Photo.
----
WASHINGTON: The US has reviewed and maintained the
terrorist designations of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and
Lashkari-Jhangvi (LJ), along with ISIL Sinai Peninsula and several other
organisations.
Days ahead of the transition of power, the US
department of state said it has amended the terrorist designations of LJ and
ISIL Sinai Peninsula (ISIL-SP) to include additional aliases.
Additionally, the department has reviewed and
maintained the Foreign Terrorist Organisation (FTO) designations of LJ,
ISIL-SP, LeT, Jaysh Rijal al-Tariq al Naqshabandi, Jama’atu Ansarul Muslimina
Fi Biladis-Sudan (Ansaru), al-Nusrah Front, Continuity Irish Republican Army,
and the National Liberation Army, a media note said.
“Based upon a review of the Administrative Records… I
conclude that the circumstances that were the bases for the designations of the
aforementioned organisations as Foreign Terrorist Organisations have not
changed in such a manner as to warrant revocation of the designations and that
the national security of the US does not warrant a revocation of the
designations,” secretary of state Mike Pompeo said in a federal register
notification published on January 14.
LeT, which carried out the 2008 Mumbai terror attack,
was designated as a terrorist organisation by the US in December 2001.
Since the original designation occurred, LeT has
repeatedly changed its name and created front organisations in an effort to
avoid sanctions, the state department had said earlier. The treasury department
earlier this month said that the US blocked $342,000 in funds of LeT in 2019.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/us-retains-terrorist-tag-of-pak-based-let/articleshow/80309654.cms
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Pakistani Ahmadis Accused Of Blasphemy For Inscribing
Islamic Phrases On Gravestones
Kamran Chaudhry
January 18, 2021
Ahmadi graves desecrated in Gujranwala, Punjab
province, in July 2020. (Photo supplied)
-----
Ahmadis in a Pakistani town have been accused of
blasphemy for inscribing Islamic phrases on gravestones.
Police in Sharaqpur Sharif in Punjab province
registered the case against 11 Ahmadis and organizers of the community under
Section 298-C of the blasphemy laws, which specifically refers to Ahmadis for
posing "as a Muslim." That section of the law can carry a fine and up
to three years’ imprisonment.
Asadullah, an activist of the hardline Islamist
political party Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP), filed the complaint against
“the declared infidels” for angering and hurting the religious feelings of
Muslims.
He accused them of writing the names of Allah, Prophet
Muhammad, Kalma (the Islamic proclamation of faith) and other phrases on
tombstones.
In a first information report (FIR), Asadullah said
the Ahmadis had insulted Prophet Muhammad. “Islamic principles must be
protected,” he stated.
TLP’s Sharaqpur Sharif branch urged its members to
share the report.
“All groups should share the FIR against the big
blasphemous group of Qadianis on Twitter and Facebook pages and demand the
urgent arrest of these accused Qadianis,” it stated in a Jan. 14 tweet.
Officials in Rabwah, the Ahmadi community headquarters
in Punjab province, declined to comment.
“I haven’t received any directions from the community
regarding the incident. This year we are trying to keep a low profile,” Amir
Mehmood, who handles communications for the sect, told UCA News.
Pakistan's blasphemy laws, introduced by former
military ruler Muhammad Zia-ul Haq in the 1980s, allow for a death sentence as
the maximum punishment for insulting Prophet Mohammed. Human rights activists
say laws have been used against non-Muslim Pakistanis and minority Muslim
faiths including Shia and Ahmadis.
In 1974, Pakistan’s parliament declared the Ahmadi
community as non-Muslims. A decade later, they were banned from calling
themselves Muslims. They are banned from preaching and from traveling to Saudi
Arabia for pilgrimages.
In July 2020, police removed Islamic symbols on
gravestones at Tirigri village in Gujranwala, about 80 kilometers from Lahore,
following a complaint lodged by a cleric. The local chapter of the Ahmadi
community gave an undertaking that it would not use Islamic symbols.
Four Ahmadis were murdered in Pakistan from August to
November 2020.
https://www.ucanews.com/news/pakistani-ahmadis-accused-of-blasphemy-over-islamic-tombstones/91040#
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Nine Islamist Militants Of Bangladesh Give Up The
Armed Struggle, Saying Violence Is The Wrong Path
01/15/2021
by Sumon Corraya
Dhaka (AsiaNews) – Nine Islamist militants reunited
with their families yesterday after announcing that they were giving up the
armed struggle. Six of the nine Muslim radicals belonged to Jamaat-ul
Mujahideen Bangladesh and the rest to Ansar-al-Islam.
After completing a deradicalisation programme run by
the Rapid Action Battalion, the country's elite anti-terrorism unit, they
received some money and educational assistance from the government to start a new life.
At the ceremony that saw the former militants start
their journey back to their families, Home Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Khan
Kamal condemned Islamist groups for “killing members of religious minorities”,
stressing that the authorities, like most people in Bangladesh, will not
tolerate extremism.
Radicalised groups began to emerge in Bangladesh in
2004. Many of their members were trained and indoctrinated in the Middle East.
Their bloodiest attack came on 1st July 2016 when a commando stormed the
Gulshan Cafe in Dhaka, killing 29 people people, including nine Italians.
As the she spoke about her story, Abida Jannat Asma,
one of nine former militants, expressed regrets for taking the “wrong path”.
She became radicalised after marrying an extremist she met at university. After
that, she was “on the run”, unable to take part in any social activity. Now she
wants to get back to some form of normal life, and she encourages her husband
and other Islamist militants to do the same.
For Shaon Muntaha Ibn Shawkat, another one of the
deradicalized militants, people's hearts cannot be won over by violence. He
explained that he radicalised himself on the internet and got his family
involved. “We have lived for years hunted by the police. Militancy was ruining
the life of my wife and children. From today things will change and I will
fight against extremism.”
http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Nine-Islamists-give-up-the-armed-struggle,-saying-violence-is-the-wrong-path-52083.html
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UAE Fatwa Council: Islam Commands Every Muslim To Stop
The Spread Of Any Pandemic, Says, Vaccines Are Permissible For Muslims Even If
They Contain Pork Gelatine
January 18, 2021
The UAE Fatwa Council, has ruled that Coronavirus vaccines
are permissible for Muslims even if they contain pork gelatin
At a time when everyone is waiting for the
arrival/distribution of Corona virus vaccine, Muslim scholars created a new
controversy over its use by starting the halal-haram debate. First row of
boycott arose in Indonesia where Indonesian Ulema Council declared that Corona
vaccine cannot be administered to any Muslim as it contains pork gelatin.
The same controversy later reached out to Indian
diaspora and some Mumbai-based Sunni Ulemas declared that a Chinese vaccine,
which allegedly contains pig gelatin, is ‘Haram’ or forbidden for Muslims. The
Fatwa has been issued by Mumbai’s Raza Academy. The Secretary-General of Raza
Academy, Syed Noorie, said that there are reports of the Chinese Covid vaccine
containing parts of pig’s body. “As pig is haram for Muslims, a vaccine
containing pig gelatin cannot be allowed”. However, there are a number of
Quranic verses with ample support from Islamic scholars which refutes such
claims.
After the controversial ruling by few Sunni Ulemas in
India and Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates’ highest Islamic authority, the
UAE Fatwa Council, has ruled that Coronavirus vaccines are permissible for
Muslims even if they contain pork gelatin. If there are no alternatives,
Council Chairman Sheikh Abdallah bin Bayyah said, that the coronavirus vaccines
would not be subject to Islam’s restrictions on pork because of the higher need
to “protect the human body”. The council added that in this case, the pork
gelatin is considered medicine, not food, with multiple vaccines already shown
to be effective against a highly contagious virus that “poses a risk to the
entire society”.
There is a great deal of evidence to support this
principle in the Holy Qur’aan and the Prophet’s Sunnah, for example, the verses
in which Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“Forbidden to you (for food) are: Al Maitah, blood,
the flesh of swine, and that which has been killed by strangling, or by a
violent blow, or by a headlong fall, or by the goring of horns – and that which
has been (partly) eaten by a wild animal – unless you are able to slaughter it
(before its death). But as for him who is forced by severe hunger, with no
inclination to sin (such can eat these above-mentioned meats), then surely,
Allaah is Oft Forgiving, Most Merciful” – [al-Maa’idah 5:3]
In another verse Al- An’am it is writen;
“And why should you not eat of that (meat) on which
Allaah’s Name has been pronounced (at the time of slaughtering the animal),
while He has explained to you in detail what is forbidden to you, except under
compulsion of necessity?”
[al-An’am 6:119]
While talking to BBC India, Islamic Scholar and VC of
Maulana Azad, Jodhpur University stated “Islam give more priority to Human
life, and if someone is forced by severe hunger, with no inclination to sin he
can consume anything which is considered as Haram. Such rumours would only
present Islam in bad light”. Maulana Khalid Rashid Firangi Mahali, a Muslim
leader in Uttar Pradesh, has advised people of his community to receive the
vaccine instead of involving themselves to be a part of any rumour.
Jamaat-e-Islami (Hind) also tried to clarify the theological position, saying a
vaccine with unlawful substances will be permissible in emergency situations to
protect human lives in case of unavailability of any other vaccine containing
lawful substances.
Dr. Razi-ul-Islam Nadwi, Secretary of the JIH Shariah
Council, said, “If an impermissible substance is transformed into something
completely different in terms of properties and characteristics, then it may be
considered as clean and permissible. On this basis, the use of gelatin derived
from the body part of a haram (unlawful) animal has been considered permissible
by Islamic jurists.” “Even those jurists who disagree with the above
transformation rule sanction a vaccine which contains prohibited substances in
case of unavailability of halal vaccines, in dire and emergency situations,” he
added.
There are ample evidences present in the light of
Quran and Hadith which give more priority to the human life and permit the
Haram things in some specific circumstances. It’s not only Muslims but the
consumption of pork is also prohibited among orthodox Jews who have openly
accepted the vaccine for the greater good of humanity. To dispel any doubts,
the vaccine spokesmen for Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca have stated that
their COVID-19 vaccines do not use products made from pork. It is time for the
Muslims to take a stand and present an example to the society which may be
imitated by others.
https://www.newdelhitimes.com/islam-commands-every-muslim-to-stop-the-spread-of-any-pandemic/
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UK demands China grant UN access to Xinjiang over
abuses
17 Jan 2021
LONDON, Jan 17 — Britain’s government on Sunday
pressed China to allow UN rights inspectors to visit Xinjiang after raising
anew allegations of “appalling” human rights abuses against the Uighur minority
people.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab last week introduced
import controls on firms that may have sourced goods from the region in
northwest China using forced labour from the mainly Muslim Uighur community.
Speaking on the BBC, he decried reports of “slave
labour effectively, forced sterilisation, appalling human rights abuses”.
“Whether or not it amounts to genocide has to be
determined by a court. The bar has been set incredibly high,” Raab said.
And frankly we shouldn’t be engaged in free-trade
negotiations with countries abusing human rights well below the limit of
genocide,” he added, implicitly attacking the European Union for securing an
investment pact with China last month.
Raab’s government opposes efforts underway in
parliament to give UK courts the power to declare a genocide in Xinjiang, which
would bar the government from proceeding with any free-trade agreement with
China.
But Raab told Sky News that he supported “the spirit”
of the proposal, and demanded that China show more transparency over Xinjiang,
where experts say at least one million Uighurs have been detained in recent
years in political “re-education camps”.
“What China says is this is all lies cooked up by the
West, and Britain a leading member amongst them,” the foreign secretary said.
“What we say is if you dispute the allegations and the
claims and the reports, there’s a simple way to clear this up: allow the UN
Human Rights Commissioner to visit and access and see these sites.”
China warned Britain to stop meddling in its internal
affairs after the imposition of the import controls, which were followed by
similar measures from Canada.
Western countries have also been at loggerheads with
Beijing over Hong Kong, a former British colony.
But Prime Minister Boris Johnson told lawmakers last
week that despite the need for vigilance, particularly about threats to
national infrastructure and data from cyberspace, bilateral ties could be
maintained.
“Speaking frankly and calling out human rights abuses
should not stop us from having a productive relationship, where that is
possible,” he said. — AFP
https://www.malaymail.com/news/world/2021/01/17/uk-demands-china-grant-un-access-to-xinjiang-over-abuses/1941371
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More than 80 people killed in militia attack on
Sudan's West Darfur region
17 January 2021
Violent clashes in Sudan's restive Darfur have left at
least 83 people dead in the past 48 hours just weeks after a long-running
peacekeeping mission ended operation.
"The death toll from the bloody events that
occurred in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur State, has risen since
Saturday morning ... to 83 dead, and 160 wounded including from the armed
forces," the Central Committee of Sudan Doctors was quoted by AFP as
saying.
Sudanese authorities have imposed a state-wide curfew
in West Darfur, while the Khartoum government dispatched a
"high-profile" delegation to help contain the situation.
The violence reportedly started as a local dispute,
before quickly morphing into broader fighting involving armed militias.
Sudan's state news agency, SUNA, citing a local
doctors union, said that casualties are expected to increase as the fighting
continues.
The union's local branch also "called for the
securing of health facilities" and urged transport be made available for
medics to assist the wounded.
On Sunday, the head of Sudan's ruling body, army chief
General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, met top security chiefs to discuss the
violence.
A coordinating committee for IDP camp residents said
in statement, "We have warned several times about the deteriorating
security situation in Darfur ... as armed militias still pose a constant
threat."
On Saturday, the governor of West Darfur declared a
state of emergency, authorizing the use of force in order to stabilize the
situation and imposing a curfew.
In late December, clashes in South Darfur state left
at least 15 people dead and dozens wounded.
The violence has reportedly pitted the Massalit tribe
against Arab nomads in El Geneina and quickly morphed into broader fighting
involving armed militias in the area.
Human rights organization, the Darfur Bar Association,
said in a statement that the latest violence was triggered when a member of the
Massalit tribe stabbed a member of an Arab tribe.
The attack came just weeks after UN peace-keepers
began withdrawing from the region.
On December 31, the hybrid United Nations African
Union Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) formally ended its operations in the region.
It plans a phased withdrawal of its approximately 8,000 armed and civilian
personnel inside six months.
The Sudanese government "will take over
responsibility for the protection of civilians" in Darfur as UNAMID’s mandate
ended.
Brokering lasting peace in Darfur and other parts of
Sudan is one of the main challenges facing military and civilian authorities
sharing power following the overthrow of former president Omar al-Bashir last
April.
Conflict broke out in Darfur in 2003 after mostly
non-Arab rebels rose up against Khartoum. Up to 300,000 people have been killed
and 2.5 million displaced, including more than 180,000 displaced in West
Darfur, according to UN estimates.
Back then, the Arab-dominated government in Khartoum
responded by recruiting and arming a notorious Arab-dominated militia known as
the Janjaweed. The main conflict has subsided over the years but ethnic and
tribal clashes still flare periodically,
Sudan is undergoing a rocky political transitional
after the ouster of Bashir in April 2019 triggered by mass protests against his
rule. Bashir, who is currently in custody in Khartoum, is wanted by the
International Criminal Court for alleged genocide and war crimes in Darfur
perpetrated over a decade ago.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/01/17/643226/Sudan-El-Geneina-Darfur-SUNA-IDP--UN-al-Bashir
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India
Ayodhya Mosque: Construction To Begin On Republic Day
After A Flag Hoisting Ceremony, Architecture Likely To Resemble Kaaba in Mecca
18 January 2021
Construction work for the Dhannipur mosque project in
Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya will begin on Republic Day after a flag hoisting
ceremony, the Trust constituted to build the mosque announced on Sunday.
Apart from a mosque, a museum, a library, a community
kitchen, the Indo-Islamic Cultural Research Centre and a publication house will
also be constructed on the five acre plot allotted by the Supreme Court.
The mosque will be built on 15,000 square feet and it
will be the same size as that of the demolished Babri mosque. The mosque is
likely to have a unique, square design, similar to that of the Kaaba in Mecca.
The mosque is coming up in the Uttar Pradesh district
pursuant to the Supreme Court verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi case.
"At a meeting of the Indo-Islamic Cultural
Foundation (IICF), it was decided that Republic Day will be celebrated with the
start of the Dhannipur Mosque Project, which includes a hospital, a museum, a
library, a community kitchen, the Indo-Islamic Cultural Research Centre, a
publication house and a mosque, secretary and spokesperson of the Trust Athar
Hussain said in a statement on Sunday.
He said at 8.30 am on January 26, the national flag
will be hoisted on the five-acre plot of the project, which will be followed by
plantation of tree saplings by the chief trustee and the member trustees of the
IICF.
At a virtual meet chaired by IICF president Zufar
Ahmad Farooqi and attended by all the nine trustees, the progress of the trust
activities, especially the procedural delay in getting the 12-A/80-G clearances
under the Income-Tax Act and the proceedings for the opening of an FCRA
account, was discussed, the statement noted.
"It was decided to make a formal beginning of the
project by applying for the plan clearance from the Ayodhya District Board and
start the soil testing process at the five-acre plot," it added.
As the focus of the project is to give community
service in the area with a determined effort to create awareness on climate
change, Hussain proposed that the formal start of the project should be made by
planting tree saplings on the five-acre plot of land.
As envisaged in the project, a green area, which will
have plants from all over the world -- from the Amazon rainforest to areas in
Australia that report bushfires -- and from all different geographical regions
of India will be developed to create awareness on the imminent threat posed by
climate change.
The Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board has formed
the IICF, a trust, for the construction of the mosque on the five-acre plot.
The state government has allotted the plot in
Dhannipur for the construction of the mosque on the directions of the Supreme
Court.
After a protracted legal tussle, the apex court on
November 9, 2019 ruled in favour of the construction of a Ram temple at a
disputed site in Ayodhya and directed the Centre to allot an alternative
five-acre plot to the Sunni Waqf Board for building a new mosque at a
"prominent" place in the holy town in Uttar Pradesh.
The Babri mosque in Ayodhya was demolished on December
6, 1992 by "karsevaks", who claimed that an ancient Ram temple stood
at the same site.
https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-ayodhya-mosque-construction-to-begin-on-republic-day-architecture-likely-to-resemble-kaaba/370916
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Islamic Terrorist West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee Will
Have To Take Refuge In Bangladesh After Bengal Polls: UP Minister's Shocker
17th January 2021
BALLIA: Uttar Pradesh minister Anand Swaroop Shukla on
Sunday called West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee an "Islamic terrorist"
and said she will have to take refuge in Bangladesh after the assembly
elections in her state.
The UP Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs
alleged that the West Bengal CM "does not believe in Bharatiyata
(Indianness)" and insulted Hindu gods and goddesses.
"She is an Islamic terrorist. She has worked to
break the temples and insult gods and goddesses in West Bengal. She is acting
at the behest of Bangladesh," the minister said.
"Mamata Banerjee will be defeated badly in the
assembly polls, after which she will have to take refuge in Bangladesh,"
Shukla added, referring to the upcoming assembly polls in West Bengal.
The minister further said the Muslims who say
"Bharat Mata ki Jai" and "Vande Mataram" will be honoured
in the country.
https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2021/jan/17/islamic-terrorist-mamatawill-have-to-take-refugee-in-bangladesh-after-bengal-polls-up-ministers-s-2251380.html
--------
'Love jihad' stems from idea of stigmatising
interfaith marriages, says Naseeruddin Shah
17th January 2021
MUMBAI: Veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah has expressed
concerns over the divide being created in the country between Hindus and
Muslims in the name of love jihad.
The 70-year-old actor made the comments in a video
interview with Karwan-e-Mohabbat India, shared on its YouTube channel on
Sunday.
"I am really furious with the way divisions are
being created, like the love jihad tamasha in UP. Firstly, the people who
coined this phrase don't know the meaning of the word jihad.
"I don't think that anyone would be so stupid to
actually believe that Muslims will overtake the Hindu population, it is
unimaginable. For that, Muslims will have to have so many babies. So, this
whole notion is unreal," Shah said in the interview.
Last year in November, Uttar Pradesh became the first
state in India to pass an ordinance against forcible or "dishonest"
religious conversions.
In the last few months, states like Haryana and Madhya
Pradesh have also revealed plans to enact laws to counter alleged attempts to
convert Hindu women to Islam in the guise of marriage, which political leaders
often refer to as ''love jihad".
The "Bandish Bandits" actor believes the
term "love jihad" stems from the idea of stigmatising inter-faith
marriages and stop social interactions between Hindus and Muslims.
"They not only want to discourage interfaith
marriages but also curtail social interactions between Hindus and
Muslims," he added.
Shah, who is married to theatre-film actor Ratna
Pathak Shah, said he always believed that his marriage to a Hindu woman would
set a "healthy precedent".
"We have taught our children about every
religion. But we have never told them that they belong to any particular
religion. I always believed that these differences would slowly fade away. I
believed that my marriage to a Hindu woman would set a healthy precedent. I
don't think this is wrong," he said.
The actor said when he was about to tie the knot with
the Ratna Pathak Shah, his mother had asked if he would want his would-be wife
to convert to his religion and his answer was no.
Shah said even though his mother was uneducated and
was brought up in an orthodox household, she was completely against the idea of
changing one's religion.
"My mother who was uneducated, brought up in an
orthodox household, prayed five times a day, observed Roza all her life, went
for the Haj pilgrimage, she said, 'The things that have been taught to you in
your childhood how can that change? It is not right to change one's
religion'," he said.
The critically-acclaimed performer said he feels
saddened to see the harassment young couples are facing these days in the name
of "love jihad".
"This is not the world I had dreamt of," he
added.
In a 2018 interview with Karwan-e-Mohabbat, Shah had
said that at many places the death of a cow is being given more importance than
the killing of a policeman.
The veteran actor had also expressed anxiety over the
well-being of his children, who he said have not been brought up as followers
of any particular religion.
Soon after the interview was released online, the
actor's remark evoked outrage among some social media users.
In the new interview, Shah said he failed to
understand the reason behind such an adverse reaction to his statement.
"All I had said was that the death of a cow had
taken precedence over the death of a person and it makes me very angry. This
was misinterpreted that I was expressing fear, when in fact I never used the
word fear.
"I have repeatedly said that I am not afraid. I
am angry. Why should I be afraid? I am in my own country; I am at my own home.
Five generations of my family are buried in this land. My ancestors have been
living here for the last three hundred years. If this doesn't make me a
Hindustani, then what does?" he asked.
The actor said it has become difficult for a person to
share their views publicly due to fear of instant backlash.
"The difficult part is there is no possibility of
(freely) exchanging ideas anymore. If you say anything, even in support of the
nation, you are accused instantly," Shah added.
https://www.newindianexpress.com/entertainment/hindi/2021/jan/17/love-jihadstems-from-idea-of-stigmatising-interfaith-marriages-says-naseeruddin-shah-2251333.html
--------
Surgical strikes in Pakistan gave public confidence
that borders are safe under Modi-led BJP govt: Amit Shah
Jan 17, 2021
BELAGAVI: The surgical strikes carried out by India
inside Pakistan after the terror attacks in Uri and Pulwama had given public
the confidence that the nation's borders are safe under the Narendra Modi led BJP
government, Union home minister Amit Shah said here on Sunday.
A determined government had responded fiercely to the
terror attacks in Uri and Pulwama in Kashmir between 2014 and 2019, he said.
"The BJP government carried out surgical strikes
inside Pakistan twice and eliminated terrorists there," Shah said.
These strikes gave confidence to the public that the
nation's borders are safe because Modi is the Prime Minister and the country is
ruled by the BJP, he said, speaking at the Janasevak Samavesha, a public
meeting to greet BJP backed candidates who won the recent Panchayat polls in
Karnataka.
Out of a total of 5,470 villages, party backed
candidates won in 3,142 villages, he said.
Referring to the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination drive,
launched nationwide on Saturday, he said both vaccines are safe and the
exercise was being monitored personally by the Prime Minister himsel
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/surgical-strikes-in-pakistan-gave-public-confidence-that-borders-are-safe-under-modi-led-bjp-govt-amit-shah/articleshow/80315293.cms
--------
Uttar Pradesh government to take back 173 acres of
land of Azam Khan’s Jauhar Trust
January 18, 2021
In more trouble for Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan,
the Rampur district administration has passed an order to take back 173 acres
of land of Jauhar Trust, headed by the former minister and his family.
Additional District Government Counsel (Revenue) Ajay
Tiwari said the order to take back the land was passed by ADM (Administration)
Jagdamba Prasad Gupta after the court found that the Jauhar Trust was not
following the conditions set by the state government during the sale of the
land in 2005.
“When a person or organization has to buy more than
12.5 acres of land, then permission has to be sought from the state government.
The state government had set some conditions at the time of the sale of this
particular land. One of the conditions set by the state government was that the
land would be used for charitable work. The court found that it was not being
done. Other conditions included that no purchase will be done from people who
belong to SC and ST categories and that gram samaj land will not be taken over.
The UP Revenue Act rules were also being violated by the Trust. The land will
now be registered in the name of the government in revenue records,” Tiwari
said.
The said land comes under the category of gram sabha
land.
“He (Azam Khan) had also taken over some land which
was supposed to be a public road, and there is also some Enemy Property, which
has been acquired for the university by the Trust,” Tiwari said, adding:
“During a probe by Rampur district administration, it was found that the Trust
was not following the conditions laid down in 2005. He was asked by the ADM
court to present his side which he did not do,” said Tiwari.
The Mohammad Ali Jauhar University, run by the Jauhar
Trust, is spread on 300 acres of land in Rampur district. The Trust is headed
by Azam, who has been in jail along with his son Abdullah since February last
year. His wife, Tanzeen Fatima, was granted bail in December. The three had
surrendered in court in a forgery case on February 26.
“The court has ordered that the land be registered in
the name of the government in the coming days,” said Tiwari.
Last January, a Prayagraj revenue board court had also
directed the government to take over approximately 100 bighas of land in Rampur
allegedly purchased from 12 Dalit farmers under coercion.
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/uttar-pradesh-government-to-take-back-173-acres-of-land-of-azam-khans-jauhar-trust-7150471/
--------
Pakistan army resorts to unprovoked firing along LoC
in J&K's Poonch
Jan 17, 2021
JAMMU: The Pakistan army resorted to unprovoked firing
and shelling of mortars along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's
Poonch district on Sunday, a defence spokesperson said.
The firing with small arms and shelling of mortars
from across the LoC started around 10.30 pm in the Balakote sector, he added.
The Indian Army retaliated befittingly, the
spokesperson said, adding that there was no immediate report of any damage.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/pakistan-army-resorts-to-unprovoked-firing-along-loc-in-jks-poonch/articleshow/80317490.cms
--------
North America
Fifty Organizations urge Biden to reject Houthi
‘terrorist’ designation by Trump admin.
17 January 2021
Fifty organizations have written a letter to US
President-elect Joe Biden, urging him to reject the Trump administration’s
designation of Yemen’s Houthis as “terrorists,” arguing that the move is a
“recipe for more conflict,” in the war-ravaged country.
“Our coalition joins a chorus of growing opposition to
the designation, including a bipartisan group of members of Congress, multiple
humanitarian organizations operating on the ground in Yemen, and former career
diplomats who have served both Republican and Democratic presidents,” read the
letter after blaming both sides of the conflict for the situation in the
impoverished country under US-backed aggression from Saudi and the UAE.
Days before President Donald Trump’s tenure ends,
hawkish Secretary of State Mike Pompeo unveiled the measure against the
Ansarullah movement on Monday.
“Rather than being a catalyst for peace, these
designations are a recipe for more conflict and famine, while unnecessarily
further undermining US diplomatic credibility,” read the letter to the incoming
president. “No evidence supports the need for such designations, a fact pointed
out in a letter last month by former US diplomats who expressed concern that ‘will
complicate... efforts to bring the conflict to a negotiated end and begin the
long process of stabilizing and reconstructing Yemen.’”
Saudi Arabia has been leading a war on Yemen since
March 2015 against the Houthi movement.
“America is the source of terrorism,” Mohammed Ali
al-Houthi, a member of Yemen's Supreme Political Council twitted on Monday.
“The Trump administration’s policy and actions are terrorist. We reserve the
right to respond to any designation issued by the Trump administration or any administration.”
US lawmakers in both parties have pushed back on the
State Department’s decision to label the
Houthis as a terrorist organization.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/01/17/643176/Biden-urged-to-reject-Houthi-terrorist-designation
--------
Iranian missiles land within 100 miles from US
aircraft carrier: Fox News
16 January 2021
Long-range missiles from Iran landed 100 miles from
the Nimitz aircraft carrier strike group belonging to the United States, Fox
News has reported.
The missiles allegedly landed 20 miles from a
commercial vessel in the Indian Ocean on Saturday, the network reported citing
unnamed US officials.
“At least two Iranian ballistic missiles exploded on
impact when they hit the ocean, sending shards of debris in all directions,”
claimed the report.
One official claimed that, “we were expecting the
missile launch.”
Iran's home-grown ballistic missiles destroyed mock
enemy warships with pin-point accuracy hundreds of kilometers away in the
northern Indian Ocean as the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) conducted
massive military drills on Friday and Saturday.
During the second and last stage of the drills,
codenamed the Great Prophet 15, the IRGC's missiles detected and destroyed
targets sailing 1,800 kilometers away.
The IRGC units launched a barrage of
surface-to-surface ballistic missiles as well as operations by offensive bomber
drones on Friday.
Iran has time and again asserted that it stands ready
to defend its interests in the region against aggression from the US or its
allies.
Tensions remain high in the region during the last
days of US President Donald Trump and his anti-Iran administration.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/01/16/643172/%E2%80%98Iran-missiles-land-within-100-miles-of-Nimitz-US-Fox-News
--------
Pakistan
Imran Khan 'criminal': Nawaz Sharif questions
negligence in foreign funding case
JAN 17, 2021
Hitting out at Prime Minister Imran Khan for shifting
the blame on the agents managing two US companies registered on his orders in
the PTI foreign funding case, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif called the former
"a criminal" and questioned why the Election Commission was not
taking any action into the matter.
"Why is the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)
not taking action when the evidence is clear-cut?" former Pakistan Prime
Minister Sharif asked in a video message while mentioning that the country
"is protesting against the ECP's negligence in fulfilling its
Constitutional duties".
"Imran Khan, the man wearing the medal and
shouting the slogan of Sadiq and Ameen, who did not tire when saying that
accountability should begin with him [...] has now become the biggest obstacle
for justice," he added.
Highlighting that several tactics are being used by
Imran Khan to delay the probe, the Pakistan Muslim League (N) chief said,
"In March 2018, the ECP had formed a scrutiny committee and directed that
a report be submitted in one month. Approximately two-and-a-half years later,
there is still no report."
"Finally in his seventh year, Imran Khan has
accepted that things have gone awry when it comes to foreign funding. But he
has put the responsibility of this on his agents and said that they must have
done this," he noted.
On the report submitted to the commission, Sharif said
that the State Bank of Pakistan had given the ECP information about 23
accounts, 15 of which the Premier hid and did not include in the report given
to the commission.
"He did not disclose the total amount, the
source, and did not give a money trail or receipts," he said.
"If there is no corruption, then why was it
hidden? Do these suspect accounts not come under the crime of money laundering?
Where is the money trail? And why is the information not being given to the ECP
and to the people?" he questioned.
He further said the Pakistan Democratic Movement
(PDM), an alliance of 11 opposition parties, will protest in front of the ECP
office in the capital on January 19, urging people to join the opposition's
march and to save the country from "injustice", Dawn reported.
The foreign funding case against Imran Khan's Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in November 2014 was registered by Akbar S Babar, one of
the founding members of the party, alleging major financial irregularities in
the party's accounts.
The allegations made by Babar included illegal sources
of funding, concealment of bank accounts in the country and abroad, money
laundering, and using private bank accounts of PTI employees as a front to
receive illegal donations from the Middle East, Dawn reported.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/imran-khan-criminal-nawaz-sharif-questions-negligence-in-foreign-funding-case-101610845257335.html
--------
India spoiling Afghan peace process: Qureshi
Shakeel Ahmad
January 18, 2021
MULTAN: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said
that India is playing the role of a spoiler in the ongoing Afghan peace
process.
“We have already conveyed our concerns to the Afghan
government and the international community with evidence,” the minister said
while speaking at a corner meeting in his constituency on Sunday.
Mr Qureshi claimed that after some steps taken by the
PTI government regarding Kashmir, the international community’s stance on the
Kashmir issue was changing.
“The world is now realising what we have been saying
for the last two years. The British parliamentarians have categorically stated
that Kashmir is a disputed issue of international level. This is an encouraging
thing for Kashmiris as it will further expose India,” the foreign minister
said.
About domestic politics, Mr Qureshi said there were
differences within the Pakistan Democratic Movement over the long march.
“We are aware of the difference of opinion in the
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz while the JUI-F is also divided into two groups.
Disappointment is prevailing in the rank and file of the PDM, but in order to
motivate their workers, they are holding public meetings,” he said.
The minister said that Prime Minister Imran Khan had
already announced that there would be no relief for the plunderers of national
wealth.
Mr Qureshi said he believed that Seraiki areas should
get recognition as no one could suppress the voices for a south Punjab
province.
“The people of Wasaib will get their rights, no matter
whether the PTI remains in power or not. The PTI believes in strengthening of
federation and for concrete administrative structure and devolution of powers
at grassroots level, we believe the establishment of south Punjab province is
necessary,” he said.
Mr Qureshi said the previous governments had not only
failed to establish a separate province, but also set up a separate
secretariat.
“I have convinced the prime minister for a separate
province and have laid the foundation stone of it by establishing an
independent secretariat,” he said.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1602130/india-spoiling-afghan-peace-process-qureshi
--------
Hindu community leader demands protection for temple
in Pakistan's Havelian
JAN 17, 2021
A leader of the minority Hindu community in Pakistan
on Sunday demanded protection for a temple in Abbottabad district of Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province fearing an attack on the place of worship by some
mischievous elements who wanted to occupy its land.
Hindu community leader Haroon Sarab Dayal said the
temple in Havelian city is an old structure and now the land mafia is out to
destroy this heritage.
"A handful of mischievous elements wanted to
occupy the temple land in Havelian city to spread anarchy in the country,"
he told the media here.
Dayal said that the matter is not restricted to
Havelian city temple. There are scores of other temples, dharma shalas, paat
shalas, Gattu shalas, Anat Ashram, cremation grounds, satsung hall, gurdwaras
and other worship places across Pakistan which needed to be protected and
preserved, he added.
"We demand from the government to ensure
protection to minorities places to avoid Terri like incident," he added.
In December, a temple in Terri village in Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa's Karak district was attacked by a mob after members of the Hindu
community received permission from local authorities to renovate its
decades-old building. The mob had demolished the newly constructed work
alongside the old structure.
The attack on the temple in Terri village by members
of radical Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party (Fazal ur Rehman group) drew strong
condemnation from human rights activists and the minority Hindu community
leaders, prompting the Supreme Court to order its reconstruction.
Hindus form the biggest minority community in
Pakistan.
According to official estimates, 75 lakh Hindus live
in Pakistan. However, according to the community, over 90 lakh Hindus are
living in the country.
The majority of Pakistan's Hindu population is settled
in Sindh province where they share culture, traditions and language with Muslim
residents. They often complain of harassment by the extremists.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/hindu-community-leader-demands-protection-for-temple-in-pakistan-s-havelian-101610904007225.html
--------
Govt under PDM pressure to resign by 31st: PML-N
Aamir Yasin
January 18, 2021
RAWALPINDI: Rejecting a perception that Pakistan
Democratic Movement (PDM) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman can be pressurised,
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb on Sunday
said the government was under immense pressure from the opposition alliance’s
movement to resign by Jan 31.
“Due to PDM movement to get the resignation of the
‘incompetent’ government, the PTI ministers are making a hue and cry as the
people supported the stance of the opposition,” she said while talking to
reporters after an organisational meeting of the PML-N’s Rawalpindi chapter.
She said the PDM called a meeting to chalk out the
plan for a protest outside the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) under the
chairmanship of Maulana Fazl at his residence on Monday (today).
Ms Aurangzeb said PML-N vice president Maryam Nawaz
would attend the PDM meeting and would also lead a rally from Rawalpindi.
However, she said the place where Ms Nawaz would arrive in Rawalpindi would be
informed to the party workers on Monday.
“On January 19, lawyers, doctors, nurses and farmers
will all have to leave their homes and join PDM [protest],” she said.
The PML-N spokesperson said the deadline for
resignation of the “selected government” was Jan 31. “Setting the date of the
foreign funding case on Feb 13 is a result of our pressure. I hope the Election
Commission will not come under pressure to make decision in the case,” she
said.
She said the government had put “our leaders in the
jails; how can we be given a tough time?” Ms Aurangzeb said the ruling Pakistan
Tehreek-i-Insaf would be declared guilty in the foreign funding case, adding
that all the evidence was available with the ECP.
She said Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar was
incompetent and the PTI government failed to deliver due to incompetency.
Talking about uplift schemes of the previous PML-N
government, she said it was not a ‘selected’ government that destroyed the
economy of the country, adding that during his tenure, Nawaz Sharif had put the
country on development path.
Ms Aurangzeb said the PML-N regime had spent the
national wealth on the welfare of the people, produced 14,000 megawatts of
electricity, run metro buses and constructed hospitals. On the other hand, she
added, the PTI government got Rs14,000 billion loan over the last
two-and-a-half years, but failed to launch any development project in the
country.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1602128/govt-under-pdm-pressure-to-resign-by-31st-pml-n
--------
Power corridors far for Fazl, says Ashrafi
January 18, 2021
LAHORE: Special Assistant to Prime Minister on
Interfaith Harmony and Middle East Affairs Hafiz Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi says the
power corridors of Islamabad are still too far for Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
Speaking at a press conference here on Sunday, he said
he respected JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman but he wished to make it clear
to the opposition leader that the corridors of power in Islamabad were still
far from his reach.
Referring to Maulana Fazl’s threat of sit-in in
Rawalpindi, he said that if the JUI-F leader wished so, he could be presented
halwa along with tea there.
Answering a question about the opposition parties’
proposed protest outside the Election Commission offices in Islamabad, he said
he could only request the protesting parties not to bring innocent students of
religious schools to the protest.
He told a questioner that Maulana Ajmal Qadri had
claimed that he had visited Israel after taking into confidence Nawaz Sharif
and Shehbaz Sharif and asked what action against Maulana Qadri was taken by the
then rulers for visiting a country not recognised by Islamabad.
He said the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government
was making efforts for international legislation against blasphemy. He said
violation of code of conduct and hateful speech by Ulema and Mashaykh would no
more be tolerated. He said that interfaith harmony councils would reinforce
interreligious dialogue in the country.
Ashrafi said ties with Arab Muslim countries would be
improved by expanding cooperation in different areas. He made it clear that
Saudi Arab never intervened in internal and external issues of Pakistan, adding
that sources had confirmed that Saudi King Shah Salman had not invited Nawaz
Sharif to visit his country.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1602092/power-corridors-far-for-fazl-says-ashrafi
--------
South Asia
Gunmen shoot dead two women judges of Afghanistan's
Supreme Court in Kabul; Ashraf Ghani blames Taliban
January 17, 2021
Kabul: Gunmen shot dead two Afghan women judges
working for the Supreme Court in an early morning ambush in the country's
capital Sunday, officials said, as a wave of assassinations continues to rattle
the nation.
Violence has surged across Afghanistan in recent
months despite ongoing peace talks between the Taliban and government — especially
in Kabul, where a new trend of targeted killings aimed at high-profile figures
has sown fear in the restive city.
The latest attack, which President Ashraf Ghani blamed
on the Taliban, comes just two days after the Pentagon announced it had cut troop
levels in Afghanistan to 2,500, the fewest in nearly two decades.
The attack on the judges happened as they were driving
to their office in a court vehicle, said Ahmad Fahim Qaweem, a spokesman for
the Supreme Court. "Unfortunately, we have lost two women judges in
today's attack. Their driver is wounded," Qaweem told AFP.
There are more than 200 female judges working for the
country's top court, the spokesman added.
Kabul police confirmed the attack.
Afghanistan's Supreme Court was a target in February
2017 when a suicide bomb ripped through a crowd of court employees, killing at
least 20 and wounding 41.
Ghani blamed the Taliban for Sunday's murders,
accusing them of launching an "illegitimate war and hostility".
"The government once again reiterates its call on
the Taliban that violence, terror, brutality and crimes... will only prolong
the war in the country," he said in a statement issued by the presidential
palace. "They (Taliban) in order to show their real intent (for peace)
should accept a permanent ceasefire."
'Appalling attack'
The top British envoy to Kabul, Alison Blake,
condemned the "appalling targeted attack" on the judges. "We
condemn this and all attacks on civilians and call for an urgent investigation
into those responsible," she said on Twitter.
In recent months, several prominent Afghans —
including politicians, journalists, activists, doctors and prosecutors— have
been assassinated in often brazen daytime attacks in Kabul and other cities.
Many journalists and activists have left the country, worried they might the
next targets.
Afghan officials have steadfastly blamed the Taliban
for the assassinations, a charge the insurgent group has denied. Some of these
killings have been claimed by the rival jihadist Islamic State group.
Earlier this month the US military for the first time
directly accused the Taliban of orchestrating the attacks. "The Taliban's
campaign of unclaimed attacks and targeted killings of government officials,
civil society leaders and journalists must... cease for peace to succeed,"
Colonel Sonny Leggett, spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, said on Twitter.
The targeted killings have surged despite the Taliban
and Afghan government engaging in peace talks in the Qatari capital of Doha.
Afghan government negotiators engaged in peace talks
with their Taliban counterparts are pushing for a permanent ceasefire as part
of the agenda for the talks, but the insurgents so far have dismissed the calls
for any type of truce.
The Taliban carried out more than 18,000 attacks in
2020, Afghanistan's spy chief Ahmad Zia Siraj told lawmakers earlier this
month.
On Friday, the Pentagon announced it had cut troop
levels in Afghanistan to 2,500 as part of its deal with the Taliban to withdraw
all troops from the country by May 2021.
That deal was struck in return for security guarantees
from the insurgents and a commitment to peace talks with the Afghan government.
https://www.firstpost.com/world/gunmen-shoot-dead-two-women-judges-of-afghanistans-supreme-court-in-kabul-ashraf-ghani-blames-taliban-9210411.html
--------
Taliban praise continued US troop withdrawal from
Afghanistan
Jan 16, 2021
KABUL: The Taliban welcomed the latest withdrawal of
US troops from Afghanistan with the insurgents' spokesman Saturday calling the
continued reduction of American forces a "good advancement" even as
fighting raged across the war-weary country.
The Taliban's statement came just hours after the
Pentagon announced it had cut troop levels in Afghanistan to 2,500, their
lowest numbers during the nearly two decades of fighting.
Washington struck a deal with the Taliban in Qatar
last year to begin withdrawing its troops in return for security guarantees
from the militants and a commitment to peace talks with Kabul.
Those talks are ongoing, but have stalled amid
violence and allegations of slow progress.
Meanwhile the Taliban has continued its lethal
assaults on Afghan security forces and civilians alike.
"The withdrawal of other US forces from
Afghanistan, which was announced by the US yesterday, is a good advancement and
practical measure," tweeted Taliban spokesman Mohammad Naeem.
"Undoubtedly, the practice of the agreement
signed between the IEA and the US is in the benefit of both countries and
nations," he added, referring to the Taliban's official acronym.
Outgoing President Donald Trump, seeking to fulfil a
campaign promise to end the US wars launched in Afghanistan and Iraq after the
9/11 attacks, had ordered force levels to be slashed in both countries to that
level by January 15 -- despite initial pushback from the Pentagon.
Both the Taliban and Afghan government however are
anxiously eyeing the arrival of President-elect Joe Biden in Washington and any
new policy directions that might be implemented by the incoming administration.
The US invaded Afghanistan on October 7, 2001, in the
wake of the 9/11 attacks. The Taliban regime then in place had hosted Al Qaeda
mastermind Osama bin Laden.
The regime was quickly toppled but launched an
insurgency and in recent years have seen a resurgence, with violence soaring
across the country since NATO withdrew its combat forces in 2014 and civilians
paying a disproportionate price.
Earlier Saturday Afghan officials said two Taliban
fighters had infiltrated a base of pro-government Afghan militiamen in western
Herat province, killing 12 security forces.
And in a separate incident, a vehicle carrying police
was struck by a roadside bomb in the Afghan capital Kabul, which killed two
policemen and wounded one other.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/south-asia/taliban-praise-continued-us-troop-withdrawal-from-afghanistan/articleshow/80302856.cms
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Hefazat: Case over Shafi's death is fabricated
January 16th, 2021
Anwar Hussain
Case filed by ‘evil quarter’ to destabilize country,
Islamist group claims
The case filed over the death of Shah Ahmad Shafi is
completely fabricated, according to the top brass of radical Islamist platform
Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh.
In a joint press statement on Saturday, Hefazat
leaders claimed the case was filed by an
“evil quarter” with the aim of creating anarchy and destabilizing the country.
“Shafi’s death was natural and this is a settled
issue. The death certificate issued by the hospital authorities also cited it
as a natural death. Holding someone responsible for the death is tantamount to
an outright lie,” said the statement.
“Shafi was a long-time rector of Al-Jamiatul Ahlia
Darul Ulum Moinul Islam, also known as Hathazari Madrasa, and chief of
Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh. He was a father figure for all the Qawmi seminaries
of the country. It is now crystal clear that a vested quarter is trying to gain
political mileage by filing a trumped-up case, when devout Muslims are deeply
shocked at the sad demise of Shafi,” it added.
The statement further said the students at Hathazari
Madrassa were compelled to wage a peaceful movement to press home legitimate
demands due to the high-handedness of Anas Madani, younger son of Shafi. There
was no provocation behind the student movement, but a vested quarter filed a
case accusing 36 Alems three months after Shafi’s death.
The Hefazat leaders threatened to wage a tough
movement if the case was not withdrawn immediately.
Shafi’s brother-in-law filed the murder case with a
Chittagong court on December 17. Taking the case into cognizance, the court
ordered the Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) to investigate.
A total of 36 people, including Hefazat Central Joint
Secretary General Mamunul Haque, were made accused in the murder case.
According to the case documents, Shafi was confined to
Hathazari Madrasa during the student movement, despite his illness, and the accused vandalized his room.
The ambulance carrying Shafi was also obstructed, with
In’amul Hasan Faruqi playing a key role. Shafi was mentally tortured and his
oxygen mask was removed during the unrest at Hathazari Madrasa.
Shafi died while undergoing treatment at Asgar Ali
Hospital in Dhaka on September 18.
Hefazat was formed in 2010 and came to prominence by
mobilizing opposition to the Shahbagh Movement in early 2013. It was then that
its leaders issued their now infamous 13-point charter, which included demands
for the death penalty for atheists and certain restrictions on social gathering
between men and women.
https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/politics/2021/01/16/hefazat-case-over-shafi-s-death-is-fabricated
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Bangladesh Again Denies Al-Qaeda Presence
2021-01-15
Bangladesh strongly rejected U.S. charges this week
that al-Qaeda cells had committed attacks on the South Asian nation, although
the U.S. State Department had documented such incidents in its annual reports
on terrorism around the world.
In a talk in Washington on Tuesday on al-Qaeda’s “new
home base in Iran,” U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said that if Iran
were to give the terror group support and access to satellite networks, it
could “increase turmoil in places like Bangladesh, where al-Qaeda cells have
carried out attacks.”
Bangladesh’s Foreign Ministry issued a sharp rebuttal
the following day.
“Mr. Pompeo mentioned Bangladesh as a place where the
terrorist group al-Qaeda carried out attacks, falsely apprehending similar
terrorist attacks in future,” it said in a statement.
“Such irresponsible comments by a senior leader are
very unfortunate and unacceptable. Bangladesh strongly rejects these kinds of
baseless remarks and falsification,” the ministry said.
Asked to respond to the ministry’s comment, a State
Department spokesperson chose to highlight counterterrorism cooperation between
the two countries.
“The United States and Bangladesh collaborate on a
range of shared priorities, including counterterrorism. We appreciate our close counterterrorism
cooperation with the Government of Bangladesh.”
Each year the U.S. State Department is required by law
to report to Congress how countries around the world are faring in efforts to
defeat international terrorist groups.
Its “Country Reports on Terrorism” note that
Bangladesh consistently denies the presence of transnational terrorist groups
on its soil, as well as ties between such groups and Bangladesh-based
militants.
“While the Bangladeshi government often attributed
terrorist violence to local militants, al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent
(AQIS) and ISIS have together claimed responsibility for nearly 40 attacks in
Bangladesh since 2015,” said the Country Reports on Terrorism 2018.
“Bangladeshi militants have been featured in multiple
publications, videos, and websites associated with ISIS and AQIS,” it said.
ISIS is another acronym for the so-called Islamic
State group, a terrorist network that emerged in the past decade as a rival to
al-Qaeda.
An AQIS-affiliated group attacked writer Zafar Iqbal
in 2018 after branding him an “enemy of Islam,” and the group was also
suspected in the murder of secular writer and political activist Shahzahan
Bachchu the same year, according to State Department reports.
AQIS claimed two attacks in 2016, including the April
25 murder of U.S. embassy local employee Xulhaz Mannan and his friend K. Mahbub
Rabbi Tonoy. “In both cases, the assailants used machetes,” the State
Department reported that year.
Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) and Ansar al-Islam,
groups affiliated with al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS), claimed
responsibility for the brutal murders of several secular writers and bloggers
between 2013 and 2016, BenarNews reported at the time.
For instance, the South Asian branch of al-Qaeda
claimed it carried out the machete-killing of secular blogger Niladri
Chottopaddhya after breaking into his home in the suburbs of Dhaka in August
2015.
“We declare war against these worst enemies of Allah
and His messenger,” Mufti Abdullah Ashraf, who claimed to be the group’s
spokesman, said in an email sent to news outlets after the murder.
“If your ‘Freedom of Speech’ maintains no limits, then
widen your chests for ‘Freedom of our Machetes’,” the email concluded.
https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/bengali/bd-us-alqaeda-01152021173624.html
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Arab World
Egypt seizes assets of Mursi, 88 Muslim Brotherhood
members
18 Jan 2021
CAIRO, Jan 18 — An Egyptian court yesterday ordered
the seizure of assets of former president Mohamed Mursi and 88 other members of
the banned Muslim Brotherhood, a judicial source said.
“The Court for Urgent Matters... ordered the seizure
of the assets of 89 leaders and members of the Brotherhood, and their transfer
to the treasury,” the source told AFP, on condition of anonymity.
Islamist Mursi died in June 2019 while on trial, after
six years in prison. The seizure applies to assets inherited by his family.
The move also targets the Brotherhood’s supreme guide
Mohamed Badie, his deputy Khairat al-Shater, and former legislator Mohamed
Beltagy, all imprisoned.
The source did not specify the value of the assets.
The seizure is one of several initiated by a
commission charged with implementing a 2018 law on the “organisation and
management of the assets of terrorists and terrorist groups”.
Mursi, Egypt’s first democratically elected president,
was ousted by the army after a year in power, on the back of mass protests
against his presidency in 2013.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, a retired general who
led the military at the time of Mursi’s removal, has since overseen a crackdown
on dissent.
Egypt has jailed thousands of members and supporters
of the Muslim Brotherhood — blacklisted as a “terrorist” organisation in 2013 —
and executed dozens, while others have fled the country. — AFP
https://www.malaymail.com/news/world/2021/01/18/egypt-seizes-assets-of-mursi-88-muslim-brotherhood-members/1941422
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Lebanon’s Patriarch tells feuding President Aoun and
PM-designate Hariri to reconcile
17 January 2021
Lebanon’s top Christian cleric has urged President
Michel Aoun to set up a reconciliation meeting with Prime Minister-designate
Saad Hariri to form a cabinet and end the country’s political deadlock.
The country’s fractious politicians have been unable
to agree on a new administration since the last one quit in the aftermath of
the August 4 Beirut port explosion, leaving Lebanon rudderless as it sinks
deeper into economic crisis.
Tensions between Aoun and Hariri, who publicly traded
blame in December after failing to agree a cabinet, came to a head last week
when a leaked video showed Aoun apparently calling Hariri a liar.
Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai said at his
Sunday sermon that the situation in Lebanon was now “tragic” and there was no
excuse to further delay forming a government.
“We wish that his excellency the president take the
initiative and invite the prime minister-designate to a meeting.”
Hariri was named premier for a fourth time in October,
promising to form a cabinet of specialists to enact reforms necessary to unlock
foreign aid, but political wrangling has delayed the process since.
The leaked video that circulated on social media last
week showed Aoun talking to caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab about Hariri.
“There is no government formation, he (Hariri) is
saying he gave me a paper, he is lying,” Aoun is heard saying.
Sources in the president’s office said the dialogue
had been taken out of context and was not complete.
After the video circulated, Hariri tweeted biblical
verses referring to wisdom not residing in bodies that were amenable to sin.
The souring of the relationship between Aoun and
Hariri comes as the country continues to struggle with an acute financial
crisis that has seen the currency sink by about 80 percent.
Lebanon’s healthcare system is also buckling under the
pressure of a severe spike in COVID-19 infections. Medical supplies have
dwindled as dollars have grown scarce.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2021/01/17/Lebanon-s-Patriarch-tells-feuding-President-Aoun-and-PM-designate-Hariri-to-reconcile
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Beirut blast chemicals possibly linked to Syrian
businessmen: Report, company filing
17 January 2021
The company that bought the ammonium nitrate which
exploded in Beirut last August had possible links to two Syrian businessmen
under US sanctions for ties to President Bashar al-Assad, according to a report
by a Lebanese journalist and London company filings.
Savaro Ltd, the trading firm which procured the
chemicals in 2013, shared a London address with companies linked to George
Haswani and Imad Khoury, according to the report by documentary film-maker
Firas Hatoum, which aired on Lebanon’s al-Jadeed TV station this week.
Haswani, Khoury and his brother Mudalal Khoury have
all been sanctioned by Washington for supporting Assad’s war effort. All three
are joint Syrian-Russian nationals, according to the US sanctions list and a
database that gathers data from official Russian institutions.
The US Treasury accused Mudalal Khoury in 2015 of “an
attempted procurement of ammonium nitrate in late 2013”. It sanctioned his
brother Imad a year later for engaging in business activities with Mudalal.
Haswani was sanctioned in 2015 on charges of helping Assad’s government to buy
oil from ISIS militants, which he has denied.
In reviewing filings with Companies House, the UK’s
companies registry, Reuters found that Savaro and Hesco Engineering and
Construction Company Ltd, a firm subject to US sanctions for its links to
Haswani, both moved their corporate registers - official company records - to
the same London address on June 25, 2011.
That address was also the registered office for IK
Petroleum Industrial Company Ltd, in which Imad Khoury was a director, the
filings show.
Dozens of companies can share listed addresses and
such links do not necessarily prove company owners are connected. But it is
rare for firms to move their registers, particularly to the same address on the
same day, according to a Reuters review of filings by hundreds of companies.
Reuters located the agent which had helped register
Hesco, but it did not respond to attempts to seek comment about Hesco’s
relationship with Savaro. Reuters could not determine if Haswani controlled
Savaro, which might have provided a possible indication of his involvement in
the procurement of the ammonium nitrate which exploded in Beirut.
Imad Khoury denied links to Savaro. “There is a
registrar in London, many companies are registered by it, not just mine,” he
told Reuters. “I don’t know this Savaro.”
Mudalal Khoury said there was “no logic” behind laying
blame for the Beirut explosion on a company registered at a London address
where many others are also registered.
Reuters could not reach Haswani for comment. His son
told Reuters in Moscow that his father was unlikely to comment on allegations
of links to the chemicals because they are “total nonsense”.
Call for investigation
The findings about the possible links between Savaro
and the Syrian businessmen have raised questions among some in Beirut over
whether the ammonium nitrate, which is used for fertilizer but also explosives,
may have been destined for Syria.
“We want this to be investigated,” Youssef Lahoud, a
lawyer who represents around 1,400 victims of the blast, told Reuters.
“It may lead us nowhere or it may be the thread that
unravels but we must follow up.”
Lebanese Justice Minister Marie Claude Najm told
Reuters the report should be investigated, as with any other allegations
related to the ongoing probe into the blast, which is in the hands of the
investigating judge and is confidential.
The Companies House register identifies a Cypriot
national, Marina Psyllou, as director and majority owner of Savaro since 2016.
Psyllou told Reuters in an email on Friday that she does not manage or own
Savaro. She did not respond to questions about Haswani.
The Beirut blast killed 200 people, injured thousands
and destroyed entire neighborhoods. Officials have said the chemicals went up
in flames after being stored at the port in poor conditions for years.
The ammonium nitrate was loaded onto a ship called the
Rhosus in Georgia, shipping records show, before making an unscheduled stop in
Lebanon in late 2013. It never left, becoming tangled in a legal dispute. The
Mozambican firm that ordered the nitrate, FEM, has said it ordered the shipment
through Savaro Ltd.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2021/01/17/Beirut-blast-chemicals-possibly-linked-to-Syrian-businessmen-report-company-filing
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Saudi Arabia, Jordan’s FMs discuss regional issues in
Riyadh meeting
Tamara Abueish
16 January 2021
Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince
Faisal bin Farhan met with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi in Riyadh to
discuss the bilateral relationship between the two countries and regional
developments.
“In today’s meeting, we discussed a number of issues
of common interest, and developments in regional and international issues,
foremost of which is the Middle East peace process,” Prince Faisal said.
“During the meeting, we stressed the need to reach a
just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue.”
The two also discussed the ongoing conflicts in Syria,
Yemen, Lebanon, and Libya, as well as Iranian and Turkish interference in the
affairs of countries in the region, the Kingdom’s foreign minister said.
“We also discussed the situation in Syria, Yemen,
Lebanon and Libya, in addition to Iranian and Turkish interference in the
affairs of the countries of the region and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” said
Prince Faisal.
For his part, Safadi said that the relationship
between Jordan and Saudi Arabia is “historical and strategic,” adding that the
two countries are working together to achieve security and stability in the
region.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2021/01/16/Saudi-Arabia-s-FM-says-discussed-Palestine-conflict-Iranian-regime-with-Jordan-s-FM
--------
PMU chief reiterates that US military forces must
withdraw from Iraq
17 January 2021
The chairman of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units
has underlined the need to implement the parliamentary resolution requesting
the government to end the presence of foreign forces in the country and
reiterating that all American troops must leave Iraq.
“Iraqis have proved that their country will not be
submissive to anyone. We want relations with everyone, but ties must be
anchored in dignity, respect for sovereignty and mutual interests,” Falih
al-Fayyadh said on Sunday at a ceremony in the western Iraqi province of Anbar,
marking the first martyrdom anniversary of top Iranian commander Lieutenant
General Qassem Soleimani and his Iraqi trenchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in a US
terrorist drone strike.
General Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of
Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and Muhandis, the deputy head of
the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), were assassinated along with their
companions in the strike authorized by US President Donald Trump near Baghdad
International Airport on January 3, 2020.
Both commanders were admired by Muslim nations for
eliminating the US-sponsored Daesh Takfiri terrorist group in the region,
particularly in Iraq and Syria.
The US assassination drew a wave of condemnation from
officials and movements throughout the world, and triggered huge public
protests across the region.
Iraqi lawmakers approved a bill two days after the
attack, demanding the withdrawal of all foreign military forces led by the
United States from the country.
Early on January 8 last year, the IRGC targeted the
US-run Ain al-Assad air base in Iraq’s Anbar to retaliate the assassination of
General Soleimani.
According to the US Defense Department, more than 100
American forces suffered “traumatic brain injuries” during the counterstrike on
the base. The IRGC, however, says Washington uses the term to mask the number
of the Americans who perished during the retaliation.
Iran has described the missile attack on Ain al-Assad
air base as a “first slap.”
Elsewhere in his remarks on Sunday, Fayyadh recounted
the invasion of Anbar province by al-Qaeda and Daesh, and warned against the
hateful ideology of the terrorists and their sponsors, which pivots on
incitement of sectarian strife and division of Iraq.
“Islam is the religion of love, friendship, brotherhood
and equality; but they (the terrorists) wanted to provoke an ethnic conflict
and partition Iraq through their distorted beliefs,” he said.
Fayyadh also denounced the January 13 decision by the
US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to blacklist and
impose sanctions against the deputy PMU chairman, Abdulaziz al-Mohammadawi,
known as Abu Fadak.
He said Washington is in no position to decide for
Iraqi commanders, stressing that the commanders are judged by the Iraqi nation
as well as their capabilities in battle grounds.
The US Treasury Department said in a statement on
January 8 it had blacklisted 64-year-old Fayyadh, accusing him of being
responsible for a crackdown by security forces on anti-government
demonstrations that gripped the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and later swept through
several other cities in late 2019.
The demonstrations erupted as a result of public anger
at corruption, mass unemployment and failing public services. Reports say some
550 people were killed and 30,000 injured. The protests caused then Prime
Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi’s resignation.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/01/17/643243/PMU-chief-US-forces-Iraq
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US-led military convoy enters northeastern Syria from
Iraq: Report
17 January 2021
The US-led military coalition purportedly formed to
fight the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group has reportedly sent a new convoy of
trucks carrying military and logistical equipment to Syria’s northeastern
province of Hasakah, as Washington is seeking to maintain its grip on energy
resources in Syria and loot natural reserves in the war-hit country.
The RT Arabic television news network, citing local
sources, reported that a convoy of 35 trucks crossed the Waleed border crossing
into Syrian territories from Iraq's northern semi-autonomous Kurdistan region
on Saturday.
The sources added that the vehicles entered the
Kurdish-populated city of Qamishli, and were carrying logistics as well as fuel
supplies for US military forces in Hasakah and neighboring Dayr al-Zawr
province.
The US military has stationed forces and equipment in
northeastern Syria, with the Pentagon claiming that the troops deployment are
aimed at preventing the oilfields in the area from falling into the hands of
Daesh terrorists. Damascus, however, says the deployment is meant to plunder
the country's resources.
The US first confirmed its looting of Syrian oil
during a Senate hearing exchange between South Carolina Republican Senator
Lindsey Graham and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in late July last year.
On July 30 and during his testimony to the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, Pompeo confirmed for the first time that an
American oil company would begin work in northeastern Syria, which is
controlled by militants from the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The Syrian government strongly condemned the
agreement, saying that the deal was struck to plunder the country's natural
resources, including oil and gas, under the sponsorship and support of the
administration of US President Donald Trump.
‘Three Turkish soldiers killed in militant attack in
northwest Syria’
Separately, three Turkish soldiers were killed in
northwest Syria on Sunday as a group of militants attacked their military base.
Lebanon-based Arabic-language al-Mayadeen television
news network reported that the development took place in the northern sector of
the beleaguered Idlib province.
On October 9, 2019, Turkey launched a cross-border
invasion of northeastern Syria in an attempt to push Kurdish militants
affiliated with the so-called People’s Protection Units (YPG) — which Ankara
views as a terror outfit — away from its borders.
Two weeks later, Russia and Turkey signed a memorandum
of understanding that forced the YPG militants to withdraw from the
Turkish-controlled “safe zone” in northeastern Syria, after which Ankara and
Moscow began joint patrols around the area.
Turkey has since wrested control of several areas in
northern Syria in addition to other Kurdish-controlled areas.
Damascus views the Turkish military presence on Syrian
soil as an attack on the Arab country's sovereignty.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/01/17/643222/military-convoy-Qamishli
--------
Europe
EU’s Borrell urges Israel to facilitate Palestinian
vote
16 January 2021
The European Union on Saturday welcomed a promise by
Palestinian leaders to hold their first elections in 15 years, urging Israel to
facilitate the ballots.
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas said elections
would be held in May and July, as part of a warming of ties between his Fatah party
and its Islamist rival Hamas.
“This is a welcome development,” said a spokesman for
EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.
He said the bloc “stands ready to cooperate with
relevant actors to support the electoral process” and urged Israel to “facilitate
the holding of these elections throughout the Palestinian territory.”
The statement from Abbas said he expected polls to be
held “in all governorates of Palestine, including east Jerusalem,” which was
annexed by Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War but is considered occupied
territory by much of the international community.
Israel bans all Palestinian Authority activity in east
Jerusalem, and there was no indication Israel would allow a Palestinian vote
within the city.
The 2005 Palestinian presidential vote saw Abbas
elected with 62 percent support to replace the late Yasser Arafat.
In the last Palestinian parliamentary elections in
2006, Hamas won an unexpected landslide.
The polls resulted in a brief unity government but it
soon collapsed and in 2007, bloody clashes erupted in the Gaza Strip between
the two principal Palestinian factions, with Hamas ultimately seizing control
of Gaza.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2021/01/16/EU-s-Borrell-urges-Israel-to-facilitate-Palestinian-vote
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Belgian court postpones verdict in Iranian diplomat
case
16 January 2021
A Belgian court on Saturday postponed until next month
the verdict in the trial of an Iranian diplomat accused of plotting to bomb an
exiled opposition group’s rally in France.
The case has caused tensions between Iran and several
European countries, and shone an uncomfortable light on Tehran’s international
activities.
Assadollah Assadi, a 48-year-old diplomat formerly
based in Vienna, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted of plotting to
target the rally in Villepinte, outside Paris, on June 30, 2018.
The verdict was initially due on January 22 but the
Antwerp court deferred it to February 4, without giving any reason for the
delay.
Assadi denies any involvement in the plot, which was
foiled by security services.
He has refused to appear at Antwerp Criminal Court,
where he is on trial with three alleged accomplices, all of whom say they are
innocent.
Lawyers for Nasimeh Naami and Amir Saadouni – a
Belgian-Iranian couple arrested in possession of a bomb in their car on their
way to France – claimed the explosive was not powerful enough to kill.
The lawyer for the third alleged accomplice, Mehrdad
Arefani, described by the prosecution as a relative of Assadi, has denied his
involvement and also pleaded for his acquittal.
Several well-known international figures – including
Rudy Giuliani, personal lawyer to US President Donald Trump – were at the event
in Villepinte.
It was organized by the National Council of Resistance
in Iran (NCRI), a group which includes the People’s Mojahedin of Iran (MEK).
The MEK is considered a “terrorist group” in Iran, and
has been banned there since 1981.
Prosecutors are seeking an 18-year jail term for the
couple found with the explosives, and 15 for Arefani.
In October 2018, France accused Iran’s ministry of
intelligence of being behind the plot. Tehran has strongly denied the charges.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2021/01/17/Belgian-court-postpones-verdict-in-Iranian-diplomat-case-
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EU welcomes decision to hold elections in Palestine
Dilara Hamit
17.01.2021
A European Commission spokesman on Saturday hailed
Palestine's decision to hold general and presidential elections for the first
time in 14 years.
"Palestine welcomes decree-law on holding
legislative, presidential and National Council elections. Elected and
democratic institutions are key for self-determination & state building. EU
is ready to support the electoral process," Peter Stano said on Twitter.
"Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's enacted a
decree-law on holding legislative, presidential and National Council elections
in the coming months starting with legislative elections on 22 May," said
Stano.
He said that it was a welcomed development as
participative, representative and accountable democratic institutions are key
for Palestinian self-determination and state-building.
"The EU has in the past years consistently
supported and funded the work of the Central Elections Commission in order to
prepare for holding free, fair and inclusive elections for all Palestinians.
"The EU stands ready to engage with relevant
actors to support the electoral process. The EU also calls on Israeli
authorities to facilitate the holding of elections across all the Palestinian
territory," he said.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/eu-welcomes-decision-to-hold-elections-in-palestine/2112637
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Africa
Nigeria army retakes military base from ISIS-linked
militants
17 January 2021
Nigerian troops regained control of a military base in
the northeast hours after it was seized by ISIS-linked militants, sources told
AFP on Sunday.
The militants captured the base in Borno state on
Saturday, after launching raids earlier in the week.
Officials blamed the violence on Islamic State West
Africa Province (ISWAP), a group that split from Boko Haram in 2016.
The army has claimed some success recently, destroying
at least one of the group’s camps located on islands in Lake Chad, on the
borders of Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad.
An army statement Saturday evening said its troops
along with the air force had “effectively destroyed seven Boko Haram/ISWAP
terrorists’ gun trucks” and killed several of the fighters.
“The troops are still engaged in pursuit of the
fleeing terrorists,” the statement added.
Sources told AFP on Sunday that the army had regained
control of the base and the extremists had left Marte, the town where the base
is located.
However, the barracks were completely burnt and the
extremists made off with weaponry and vehicles.
Seven soldiers were killed during the fighting and
eight others captured, sources said.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2021/01/17/Nigeria-army-retakes-military-base-from-ISIS-linked-militants
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Sudanese protesters burn Israeli flag, condemn recent
normalization deal
17 January 2021
Dozens of Sudanese demonstrators have burned the
Israeli flag in the capital Khartoum to protest their country’s recent
normalization deal with the Israeli regime.
Sudanese protesters gathered outside the cabinet
offices on Sunday and chanted anti-Israel slogans to express their opposition
to the normalization deal, which was signed earlier in January.
The demonstrators, who said they belonged to an
anti-normalization group, carried banners that read “normalization is betrayal”
and “normalization is a crime”.
They also carried banners that read “down with Abraham
accords” and “Abraham Accords are American blackmail in exchange for
submission.”
On January 6, Sudan’s Justice Minister Nasredeen
Abdulbari signed the so-called Abraham Accords with visiting US Treasury
Secretary Steven Mnuchin, officially agreeing to normalize ties with the
Israeli regime.
The normalization deal was immediately denounced by
political parties in Sudan, followed by angry protesters taking to the streets
to condemn the decision.
“The agreement allows Sudan, Israel and other signers
of the Abraham Accords to build mutual trust and increase cooperation in the
region,” the US embassy in Khartoum said at the time.
The deal came less than a month after Washington
officially removed Sudan from its blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism, 27
years after the US placed the African country on its blacklist.
Back in October, US President Donald Trump announced
plans to delist Sudan from the blacklist, sending a notice to Congress on
October 26, which gave Congress 45 days to object to the presidential
directive.
After the 45 days came to an and, the US embassy
announced in a statement on December 14 that the delisting has become
effective.
“The congressional notification period of 45 days has
lapsed and the Secretary of State has signed a notification stating rescission
of Sudan’s State Sponsor of Terrorism designation is effective as of today
(December 14), to be published in the Federal Register,” the embassy said in a
tweet.
By signing the so-called Abraham Accords, Sudan became
the third Arab country since August — after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and
Bahrain — to officially agree, under US pressure, to a normalization deal with
the regime in Tel Aviv.
Meanwhile, Palestinians strongly denounced Sudan’s
move as a betrayal of their cause.
In a statement, the resistance movement Hamas said the
move has shocked Palestinians, Arab and Muslim nations, and freedom-loving
people of the world.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has also protested
the normalization deals, saying they will be fruitless as long as the US and
the Israeli regime do not recognize the rights of the Palestinian people.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/01/17/643240/Sudan-protesters-burn-Israeli-flag-slam-Abraham-accords
--------
Riots break out in several Tunisian cities for second
night
17 January 2021
Riots and violent clashes between Tunisian police and
protesters broke out on Sunday in the capital Tunis and several other cities
for the second consecutive day, as the country faces an unprecedented economic
crisis.
Tunisian authorities said earlier that they had
arrested 240 people, mostly teenagers, after violent clashes with police in
several cities overnight and during the day on Sunday.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
A decade on from a revolution against poverty,
corruption and injustice, Tunisia has progressed towards democracy but its
economic problems have worsened, with the country on the verge of bankruptcy
and public services in a dire situation.
The protesters made no clear demands in demonstrations
- which authorities described as riots - in at least 10 cities around the
country.
In the run-down Ettadamen area of the capital,
protesters, most of them teenagers, blocked roads and threw stones at police.
Police fired water cannons and tear gas to disperse them on Sunday.
Clashes also spread to the Mnihla area of Tunis.
Internal Security Forces spokesman Walid Hkima said
riot police had arrested 242 people, mostly teenagers and children who
vandalized property and tried to rob shops and banks.
The protests pose a challenge for the government of
Hicham Mechichi, who has reshuffled his cabinet amid an ongoing battle for
political influence.
Rural central and southern regions of the country
remain flashpoints for rioting.
Witnesses told Reuters that protests were held on
Sunday in the central towns of Sbeitla and Kasserine, where police chased the
protesters and fired tear gas.
In Jelma town in the governor of Sidi Bouzid, police
dispersed youths who blocked roads and burned tires to protest against their marginalization
and poverty.
Other protests were held in the cities of Ras Djbel,
Ksar Hlel and Beja.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/north-africa/2021/01/17/Riots-break-out-in-several-Tunisian-cities-for-second-night
--------
Tunisia govt says dozens arrested during night
disturbances despite lockdown
17 January 2021
Tunisian security forces arrested dozens of young
people during consecutive nights of disturbances in the capital and other
cities, a government spokesman said Sunday.
The disturbances come amid a nationwide lockdown
imposed since Thursday – the 10 year anniversary of dictator Zine El Abidine
Ben Ali’s fall from power – as part of efforts to rein in surging coronavirus
infections.
Interior ministry spokesman Khaled Hayouni told AFP
that dozens of young people, mostly aged between 14 and 17, were arrested after
they took to the streets to loot and vandalize shopfronts and cars.
He also said those arrested stood accused of throwing
stones at police in several locations across the country in two nights of
violence that peaked on Saturday night.
Videos circulating on social media showed young people
burning tires on roads, insulting the police and throwing stones.
Even before the recent lockdown, a four-day measure
meant to expire on Sunday, Tunisia had since October been under a night-time
curfew.
Footage also showed people forcing the doors of shops
and stealing household appliances.
Sousse – a magnet for foreign holidaymakers in normal
times, but hit hard by the ongoing pandemic – and other cities were also hit by
the disturbances.
A decade on from the revolution, many Tunisians are
increasingly angered by poor public services and a political class that has
repeatedly proved unable to govern coherently.
The key tourism sector, already on its knees after a
string of deadly extremist attacks in 2015, has been dealt a devastating blow
by the pandemic.
Tunisia has registered over 177,000 coronavirus cases,
including over 5,600 deaths from the disease.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/north-africa/2021/01/17/Tunisia-govt-says-dozens-arrested-during-night-disturbances-despite-lockdown
--------
Libya envoys to vote on key proposal for new
executive: UN
17 January 2021
Envoys at talks aimed at ending nearly a decade of war
in Libya will vote on Monday on a mechanism to choose an interim executive that
would govern until elections in December, a top UN official said.
The talks, held first in Tunis and now in Geneva, are
designed to pave the way for elections on December 24. Libya has been torn apart
by civil war since the ousting of long-time dictator Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
“The plenary will vote on this mechanism on Monday,”
Stephanie Williams, head of the United Nations support mission in Libya, told
journalists on Saturday.
Monday’s vote concerns a “temporary unified executive
authority that will be replaced by a permanently democratically elected
government, chosen by the Libyan people on December 24 of this year,” said
Williams.
“It embodies the principles of full inclusivity,
transparency and fair representation across regions and within different
population groups,” she said.
“As I have repeatedly stated, this is a Libyan-Libyan
solution. Our role is to support and facilitate.”
Libya was thrown into chaos after a 2011 NATO-backed
uprising toppled Gaddafi.
The Government of National Accord (GNA) controls
Tripoli and most of the west, while a rival administration led by Khalifa
Haftar who heads the Libyan National Army (LNA) controls Benghazi and the east.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/north-africa/2021/01/17/Libya-conflict-Libya-envoys-to-vote-on-key-proposal-for-new-executive-UN
--------
Tunisia set to lose millions in cash stashed in Swiss
banks by Ben Ali’s family
17 January 2021
Tunisia could lose millions of dollars stashed in Switzerland
by the family of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, a senior official
said Saturday.
The funds are currently frozen by Swiss authorities
but a deadline to claw back funds ends midnight on Tuesday and restrictions
then cease, a presidential official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Swiss authorities imposed a 10-year freeze on assets
of Ben Ali and his clan amid a corruption probe on January 19, 2011, five days
after the toppled leader fled to Saudi Arabia, where he later died.
Swiss-based campaign group Public Eye, which
investigates human rights violations by Swiss companies, estimates Ben Ali’s
family and allies shifted some $320 million into Swiss banks in the years
before his ouster.
Leila Trabelsi, Ben Ali’s widow, and her wealthy businessman
brother Belhassen Trabelsi, are among 30 to 50 of his relatives and associates
who “could get hold of the money”, the source said.
“We are in touch daily with the Swiss authorities, but
despite their understanding, it will be difficult to achieve anything” by the
deadline, the source added.
The Swiss have reportedly demanded documents to prove
the funds are indeed illegal, before they could return it to Tunisia’s
government.
Swiss authorities also want to know the legal status
of members of the Ben Ali clan, many of whom faced warrants and trials in
Tunisia for corruption, the source said.
The authorities have failed to compile the information
due to political instability in Tunisia, which has seen nine government since
2011, the source added.
Swiss daily Le Temps said Swiss officials had offered
to create a joint body to support Tunisian efforts to reclaim the cash.
But former Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi, who
died in 2019, preferred to try retrieve funds through reconciliation deals with
members of the Ben Ali clan.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/north-africa/2021/01/17/Tunisia-set-to-lose-millions-in-cash-stashed-in-Swiss-banks-by-Ben-Ali-s-family
--------
Takfiri terrorists hit Nigeria army base in Borno,
take control
16 January 2021
Takfiri terrorists have attacked an army base in
Nigeria’s northeastern state of Borno, taking the facility under their control.
The ‘Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP),’ an
outfit affiliated with the Daesh terrorists, in trucks fitted with machine
guns, hit the base in Marte town of the Lake Chad region overnight Friday into
Saturday.
Some say the army lost forces but the number of
casualties is not known yet.
The group had attempted to take over the base last
week but was repelled by the army.
The raid on Friday night is seen as a ‘fight-back’
after recent losses suffered by the terrorists.
Nigerian troops recently overran the second largest
camp run by the terrorists in the village of Talala.
Bullets and blood have roamed northeastern Nigeria for
years.
Rival communities clash over land. Heavily-armed
criminal gangs fill the air with terror. Vigilante groups are involved in
reprisal acts of killing.
ISWAP is a faction of the Boko Haram Takfiri terrorist
group which split in 2016. Ever since, it has been targeting military
formations in Nigeria as well as Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
It maintains camps on islands in Lake Chad, where the
territories of Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad meet.
At least 36,000 people have been killed and some two
million people displaced in more than a decade of Boko Haram violence in
Nigeria, according to the United Nations (UN)'s Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/01/16/643146/Nigeria-army-base-Borno
--------
Bomb explosion kills 6 in Somalia
Mohammed Dhaysane
17.01.2021
MOGADISHU, Somalia
At least six people, including Somali army soldiers,
were killed, while eight others wounded in a bomb explosion aimed at targeting
the convoy of the Lower Shabelle region’s governor and military officials on
Sunday, an official said.
The attack took place in the vicinity of Tehsile,
lower Shabelle region, located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of the
capital Mogadishu.
Bille Adan, a local police officer, told Anadolu Agency
via phone it was a landmine explosion followed by a gun battle between the
soldiers and armed militants belonging to al-Shabaab militant group.
Adan said that Govenor Abdukadir Mohamed Nuur Sidi
survived the attack, while heavily wounded soldiers were transported to the
capital for treatment.
Local media reported that foreign military officials
were also part of the convoy.
Somali-based al-Qaeda affiliated al-Shabaab group
claimed responsibility for the attack via internet and said it targeted US-trained
Somali special forces known as Danab.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/bomb-explosion-kills-6-in-somalia/2113270
--------
Mali: UN peacekeeper killed in terror attack
Fatma Esma Arslan
16.01.2021
A UN peacekeeper was killed in an attack in the Kidal
region of Mali, the group’s mission in the West African nation said Saturday.
The UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization
Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) said a mine planted by terrorists exploded when a
vehicle that was carrying UN soldiers passed over the device.
The deceased soldier’s nationality was not disclosed.
And another was injured.
An attack targeting UN peacekeepers was carried out
Jan. 13 in Mali that killed four Ivory Coast soldiers.
MINUSMA was established in 2013 by UN Security Council
Resolution 2100 to stabilize that country after a Tuareg rebellion in 2012.
The mission has suffered 230 fatalities since 2013,
the most of any of the organization’s missions.
It is one of the largest missions, with more than
15,000 personnel.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/mali-un-peacekeeper-killed-in-terror-attack/2111922
--------
Southeast Asia
Dr Mahathir, Pejuang lawmakers apply to join lawsuit
on Agong’s powers to refuse Emergency declaration
Monday, 18 Jan 2021
BY IDA LIM
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 18 — Langkawi MP Tun Dr Mahathir
Mohamad and four other lawmakers from his Pejuang party are now seeking to be
part of a constitutional court challenge regarding the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s
discretion to refuse to declare an Emergency.
The four others who are seeking to be interveners are
Pejuang president and Jerlun MP Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir, Pejuang
secretary-general and Kubang Pasu MP Datuk Amiruddin Hamzah, Sri Gading MP
Datuk Shahruddin Md Salleh, as well as Pejuang deputy president and Dewan
Negara lawmaker Datuk Marzuki Yahya.
Dr Mahathir who is also Pejuang chairman and the four
others had on January 12 jointly filed an intervener application to ask the
High Court in Kuala Lumpur to allow them to be part of lawyer Syed Iskandar
Syed Jaafar’s lawsuit against the Malaysian government.
In the January 12 court papers sighted by Malay Mail,
Dr Mahathir and the four had explained their application to get the court’s
leave or permission to be part of the lawsuit.
Among other things, the five Pejuang lawmakers argued
that they have the constitutional rights to be part of the lawsuit in order to
fulfill their constitutional oaths of protecting and defending the Federal
Constitution.
The five also argued that they would be the ones most
affected by any decision of the court in this lawsuit, including in terms of
their constitutional rights under the Federal Constitution’s Article 62 and
Article 63 to debate and vote on any drafting and amendments of law and to
voice out for voters in the Dewan Rakyat and Dewan Negara.
The five also said that their position as members of
Parliament would enable them to help the court to decide on the important
constitutional matters raised in the lawsuit, and argued that their status as
MPs meant they have the legal rights to help the court interpret constitutional
matters.
Apart from that, they argued that they have the
constitutional right as MPs to provide testimony in court to help the High
Court decide on the law, and that they as MPs have the legal obligation to
protect the Federal Constitution.
“The proposed interveners as MPs have legitimate
interest and legal interest to be made parties to this Originating Summons
action,” the five said when referring to themselves.
Malay Mail also sighted a separate application by the
five for their intervener application to be heard before or by February 18 to
preserve their rights.
In the application by lawyer Muhammad Rafique Rashid
Ali who represents the five, he noted that the High Court had already fixed
February 18 to hear four other applications others also seeking to be
interveners in the lawsuit.
The four other intervener applications are by
Malaysian Muslim Lawyers Association secretary-general Ridha Abdah Subri;
lawyer Mohd Khairul Azam Abdul Aziz and Malcolm Fernandez; Nazira Abdul Rahim;
and Centre For a Better Tomorrow.
In the application, Rafique had said his five clients’
intervener application should be expedited as the constitutional issues in the
lawsuit involve public interest and should be decided quickly, and as his clients’
rights as members of Parliament would be affected if their intervener
application was not heard earlier or by February 18.
When contacted, Rafique confirmed the filing of the
court documents on January 12, and said the sealed copies will be served to the
parties in the lawsuit.
“We are awaiting the sealed copies to be extracted
before serving on parties concerned,” he told Malay Mail.
In Syed Iskandar’s lawsuit filed on October 30, 2020,
the lawyer had noted the Yang di-Pertuan Agong’s October 25 refusal to declare
an Emergency as sought by the prime minister on October 23, describing this as
the ruler’s “rejection of the prime minister’s advice” for an Emergency to be
declared.
Syed Iskandar had in court papers claimed that the
Yang di-Pertuan Agong had exercised his functions in a manner inconsistent with
the Federal Constitution’s Article 40 and Article 150 when declining to act on
the advice of the prime minister or Cabinet.
In his lawsuit, Syed Iskandar had posed two questions
of constitutional and public importance for the court to decide, including
whether the Yang di-Pertuan Agong has an “unfettered discretion” not to declare
an Emergency despite the advice of the prime minister or Cabinet for an
Emergency declaration, based on a true construction of Article 40 and Article
150 of the Federal Constitution.
The second question was on whether Act 514
(Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994) which amended the Federal
Constitution’s Article 150 by adding clauses (8) and (9) is violative of the
basic structure of the Federal Constitution, when the Federal Constitution’s
Article 4(1) is taken into account.
Months after the October 2020 events and the filing of
Syed Iskandar’s lawsuit, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on January 12 announced an
Emergency on Malaysia, just a day after Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin
presented the ruler with the Cabinet’s advice for an Emergency to be declared.
The Proclamation of Emergency nationwide was gazetted
on January 12 and deemed to be in effect from January 11 to August 1, while the
Emergency (Essential Powers) Ordinance 2021 — which suspends all elections and
the sitting of Parliament — was gazetted on January 14 and also deemed to have
taken effect from January 11 onwards.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/01/18/dr-m-pejuang-lawmakers-apply-to-join-lawsuit-on-agongs-powers-to-refuse-eme/1941548
--------
Tok Mat: Govt should impose ‘health emergency’ rather
than Emergency that renders Constitution, Parliament dysfunctional
17 Jan 2021
BY DANIAL DZULKIFLY
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 17 — The government should call for
a so-called “health emergency” to contain Covid-19 instead for the state of
Emergency last week, Umno deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan has said
today.
In a brief statement, the former Negri Sembilan mentri
besar acknowledged that such a declaration may be needed to contain the
pandemic, but not at the expense of the country’s Constitution and Parliament
which he said are currently rendered dysfunctional.
“However, I believe it would be more appropriate for
the government to instead declare a state of ‘health emergency’ while also
introducing a specific ordinance for such a purpose,” said the politician known
as Tok Mat.
“Only through reinforcement of the healthcare strategy
can we improve our control over the pandemic. For example, by expediting the
immunisation process and utilising the movement control order. To paralyse the
Constitution, be it partially or fully, would never help our recovery from the
pandemic.”
He also claimed that his party remains firm on
restoring the country’s democracy and the democratic functions of the Federal
Constitution.
“Malaysia is a successful democracy. In fact, Malaysia
is the best example of a democratic country among all Muslim nations,” he
added.
“Malaysia’s democracy must remain undefeated, be it by
the pandemic or whatever challenges that may come forth to this country. It
will also be a just country with its Constitution as the highest law and
beacon.”
It is unsure how a “health emergency” would be like, as
lawyers told Malay Mail that the Constitution does not provide for any other
kind of emergency.
Earlier this week, Muhyiddin announced that the Yang
di-Pertuan Agong has agreed to proclaim an Emergency to last until August 1 to
allow the federal government to contain the Covid-19 pandemic without political
distractions.
Under the Emergency, Parliament and state legislative
assemblies are suspended, and no elections can be held.
Earlier today, Federal Territories Minister Tan Sri
Annuar Musa was reported saying political instability was among the reasons
that contributed towards the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government announcing the
state of Emergency last week.
In an interview with Utusan Malaysia’s Sunday edition
Mingguan Malaysia, the recently-ousted Barisan Nasional secretary-general said
this was a large consideration on top of the worsening Covid-19 pandemic that
is putting immense pressure on the country’s economic and social development.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/01/17/tok-mat-govt-should-impose-health-emergency-rather-than-state-of-emergency/1941282
--------
Mideast
Tehran Deplores US’ Sanctioning of Iran’s Diplomats,
Warns of Lodging Lawsuit at ICJ
2021-January-17
“An official warning note has been issued and
submitted to the US through Swiss Embassy which serves US Interest Section in
Iran,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Saturday.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran has warned the US that
if it does not stop its illegal moves against Iranian diplomats at the global
organizations such as the UN, the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund, whose headquarters are in the US, Iran will lodge its complaint against
the US at the ICJ,” Khatibzadeh went on to say.
“The US government has been creating serious problems
for Iranian diplomats and their families with the international organizations
in the US which are in violation of international law,” he reiterated.
“Despite its obligations for hosting international
organizations, the US government has never been a qualified host,” the
spokesman noted, adding, “Throughout the UN history, it (US) has sought to
harass the diplomats, families and children of the diplomats of countries which
it is at odds with.
The outgoing Trump Administration has recently
intensified its previous sanctions against Iran’s diplomats and their families.
https://www.farsnews.ir/en/news/13991028000153/Tehran-Deplres-US%E2%80%99-Sancining-f-Iran%E2%80%99s-Diplmas-Warns-f-Ldging-Lawsi-a
--------
IRGC Top Commander: Iran's Strategy Entails Ballistic
Missiles Raining Down on Hostile Warships
2021-January-16
"One of our most important goals in defense
policies and strategies is to reach the ability to hit enemy weaponry,
including aircraft carriers and warships, using long-range ballistic missiles,"
Major General Salami said in the final stage of Payambar-e Azam 15 (Great
Prophet 15) drills on Saturday.
"It is usual to hit moving targets in the sea by
low-speed cruise missiles," he said,a adding, "But using long-range
missiles is a great defense breakthrough for us because we can hit moving
targets in the ocean from the heart of our land."
The IRGC carried out the final stage of the Great
Prophet 15 drills on Saturday with strategic operations of long-range ballistic
missiles that successfully hit the hypothetical enemy’s vessels 1,800
kilometers away in the North of the Indian Ocean.
This stage was held in the presence of Chief of Staff
of Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri, IRGC Commander
Major General Hossein Salami, IRGC Aerospace Commander Brigadier General Amir
Ali Hajizadeh and a number of top brass of Iran’s Armed Forces.
After detection of the hypothetical enemy ships’
position by the IRGC Aerospace reconnaissance systems, long-range ballistic
missiles of various classes were fired from the Central deserts of Iran and
successfully hit and destroyed all targets in the Northern Indian Ocean some
1,800 kilometers away.
Senior Political Analyst Seyed Mostafa Khoshcheshm
says this specific operation had been planned to carry a special message to
Iran's foes.
"Certainly, the precision-striking capability and
destruction power of these long-range ballistic missiles produce an image in
action, which comes to play a pivotal role in the military assessments of
Iran's enemies, especially when one considers the timing of this very
meaningful part of the drills," he said.
The IRGC started the first phase of the Great Prophet
15 wargames with the IRGC Aerospace Force's massive missile launch and drone
operations in the Central Desert of Iran on Friday.
The first stage of the Great Prophet (Payambar-e Azam)
15 drills of the IRGC kicked off on Friday morning with the codename of “Ya
Fatimah al-Zahar”, during which ground-to-ground ballistic missiles were fired
and offensive drone bombers operations were put into action in the general area
of Iran’s Central Desert.
During the drills that began in the presence of IRGC
Commander Major General Hossein Salami, IRGC Aerospace Commander Amir Ali
Hajizadeh and a number of senior commanders and officials of the Iranian Armed
Forces, a new generation of ground-to-ground ballistic missiles and drones were
used in compound offensive against hypothetical enemy bases, destroying all the
specified targets.
During this stage of the wargames, after the attack of
the IRGC Aerospace’s offensive bomber drones from all sides to the missile
shield of the hypothetical enemy and complete destruction of targets, the new
generation of the IRGC ballistic missiles of the classes of Zolfaqar, Zelzal
and Dezful were mass fired at targets dealing fatal blows to the hypothetical
enemy bases.
The missiles were Multiple Re-entry Vehicles (MRVs)
with the capability of jamming and going through the enemy missile shield.
In relevant remarks on Friday, Islamic Revolution
Guards Corps Aerospace Commander Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said his
force has created a new power for Iran in Great Prophet 15 drills through a
combination of a variety of capabilities with artificial intelligence.
“Through the combination of new missile capabilities
and drone operation with artificial intelligence, today a new power was born in
the IRGC,” Hajizadeh said on the sidelines of Payambar-e Azam 15 (Great Prophet
15) wargames on Friday.
“The first stage of the drill was a simulator for attacking
the enemy’s power points and defensive lines,” he said, adding that this stage
was carried out using a combination of drones and missiles.
“First, drone units targeted the defensive systems of
the hypothetical enemy, and then, ballistic missiles destroyed the main assets
and sections of the enemy base,” the Brigadier General went on to say.
“Missiles used in this stage of the wargames are a new
generation of ballistic missiles equipped with detachable warheads and low RCS
(Radar cross-section),” Hajizadeh said, adding that the time for preparation
and operationalization of these missiles has been decreased by 90%.
“These missiles are operational and can be launched in
less than five minutes after deployment,” he stressed.
Attacking the hypothetical enemy from all sides and
altitudes, hampering the enemy’s defensive ability, infiltrating enemy’s
missile shield by detachable warheads, and using equipment designed and
produced by domestic experts are among features of this drill, the commander
said.
Great Prophet (Payambar-e Azam) wargames are annual
missile tests and exercises conducted by Iran's IRGC. The first series of the
wargames began in July 2008.
In recent years, Iran has made great achievements in
its defense sector and attained self-sufficiency in producing essential
military equipment and systems.
The Iranian Armed Forces several times a year test
their preparedness and capabilities as well as newly-manufactured weapons
systems in different wargames.
The Iranian Armed Forces recently test-fire different
types of newly-developed missiles and torpedoes and tested a large number of
home-made weapons, tools and equipment, including submarines, military ships,
artillery, choppers, aircrafts, UAVs and air defense and electronic systems,
during massive military drills.
Iranian officials have always stressed that the
country's military and arms programs serve defensive purposes.
Defense analysts and military observers say that
Iran's wargames and its advancements in weapons production have proved as a
deterrent factor.
https://www.farsnews.ir/en/news/13991027000597/IRGC-Tp-Cmmander-Iran's-Sraegy-Enails-Ballisic-Missiles-Raining-Dwn-n
--------
IRGC Ballistic Missiles Destroy Naval Targets at
1,800km Distance
2021-January-16
The IRGC carried out the final stage of the Great
Prophet 15 drills on Saturday with strategic operations of long-range ballistic
missiles that successfully hit the hypothetical enemy’s vessels 1,800
kilometers away in the North of the Indian Ocean.
This stage was held in the presence of Chief of Staff
of Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Hossein Baqeri, IRGC Commander
Major General Hossein Salami, IRGC Aerospace Commander Brigadier General Amir
Ali Hajizadeh and a number of top brass of Iran’s Armed Forces.
After detection of the hypothetical enemy ships’
position by the IRGC Aerospace reconnaissance systems, long-range ballistic
missiles of various classes were fired from the Central deserts of Iran and
successfully hit and destroyed all targets in the Northern Indian Ocean some
1,800 kilometers away.
Senior Political Analyst Seyed Mostafa Khoshcheshm
says this specific operation had been planned to carry a special message to
Iran's foes.
"Certainly, the precision-striking capability and
destruction power of these long-range ballistic missiles produce an image in
action, which comes to play a pivotal role in the military assessments of
Iran's enemies, specially when one considers the timing of this very meaningful
part of the drills," he said.
The IRGC started the first phase of the Great Prophet
15 wargames with the IRGC Aerospace Force's massive missile launch and drone
operations in the Central Desert of Iran on Friday.
The first stage of the Great Prophet (Payambar-e Azam)
15 drills of the IRGC kicked off on Friday morning with the codename of “Ya
Fatimah al-Zahar”, during which ground-to-ground ballistic missiles were fired
and offensive drone bombers operations were put into action in the general area
of Iran’s Central Desert.
During the drills that began in the presence of IRGC
Commander Major General Hossein Salami, IRGC Aerospace Commander Amir Ali
Hajizadeh and a number of senior commanders and officials of the Iranian Armed
Forces, a new generation of ground-to-ground ballistic missiles and drones were
used in compound offensive against hypothetical enemy bases, destroying all the
specified targets.
During this stage of the wargames, after the attack of
the IRGC Aerospace’s offensive bomber drones from all sides to the missile
shield of the hypothetical enemy and complete destruction of targets, the new
generation of the IRGC ballistic missiles of the classes of Zolfaqar, Zelzal
and Dezful were mass fired at targets dealing fatal blows to the hypothetical
enemy bases.
The missiles were Multiple Re-entry Vehicles (MRVs) with
the capability of jamming and going through the enemy missile shield.
In relevant remarks on Friday, Islamic Revolution
Guards Corps Aerospace Commander Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh said his
force has created a new power for Iran in Great Prophet 15 drills through a
combination of a variety of capabilities with artificial intelligence.
“Through the combination of new missile capabilities
and drone operation with artificial intelligence, today a new power was born in
the IRGC,” Hajizadeh said on the sidelines of Payambar-e Azam 15 (Great Prophet
15) wargames on Friday.
“The first stage of the drill was a simulator for
attacking the enemy’s power points and defensive lines,” he said, adding that
this stage was carried out using a combination of drones and missiles.
“First, drone units targeted the defensive systems of
the hypothetical enemy, and then, ballistic missiles destroyed the main assets
and sections of the enemy base,” the Brigadier General went on to say.
“Missiles used in this stage of the wargames are a new
generation of ballistic missiles equipped with detachable warheads and low RCS
(Radar cross-section),” Hajizadeh said, adding that the time for preparation
and operationalization of these missiles has been decreased by 90%.
“These missiles are operational and can be launched in
less than five minutes after deployment,” he stressed.
Attacking the hypothetical enemy from all sides and
altitudes, hampering the enemy’s defensive ability, infiltrating enemy’s
missile shield by detachable warheads, and using equipment designed and
produced by domestic experts are among features of this drill, the commander
said.
Great Prophet (Payambar-e Azam) wargames are annual
missile tests and exercises conducted by Iran's IRGC. The first series of the
wargames began in July 2008.
In recent years, Iran has made great achievements in
its defense sector and attained self-sufficiency in producing essential
military equipment and systems.
The Iranian Armed Forces several times a year test
their preparedness and capabilities as well as newly-manufactured weapons
systems in different wargames.
The Iranian Armed Forces recently test-fire different
types of newly-developed missiles and torpedoes and tested a large number of
home-made weapons, tools and equipment, including submarines, military ships,
artillery, choppers, aircrafts, UAVs and air defense and electronic systems,
during massive military drills.
Iranian officials have always stressed that the
country's military and arms programs serve defensive purposes.
Defense analysts and military observers say that
Iran's wargames and its advancements in weapons production have proved as a
deterrent factor.
https://www.farsnews.ir/en/news/13991027000458/IRGC-Ballisic-Missiles-Desry-Naval-Targes-a-00km-Disance
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Israel to ban groups that call it an ‘apartheid state’
18 January 2021
Israel’s education minister is banning groups that
call Israel an “apartheid state” from lecturing at schools — a move that
targets one of the country’s leading human rights groups after it began
describing both Israel and its control of the Palestinian territories as a
single “apartheid” system.
The explosive term, long seen as taboo and mostly used
by the country’s harshest critics, is vehemently rejected by Israel’s leaders
and many ordinary Israelis.
Education Minister Yoav Galant tweeted late on Sunday
that he had instructed the ministry’s director general to “prevent the entry of
organizations calling Israel ‘an apartheid state’ or demeaning Israeli soldiers
from lecturing at schools.”
In a report released last week, the rights group
B’Tselem said that while Palestinians live under different forms of Israeli
control in the occupied West Bank, blockaded Gaza, annexed east Jerusalem and
within Israel itself, they have fewer rights than Jews in the entire area
between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. B’Tselem said it would not
be deterred by the minister’s announcement.
“B’Tselem is determined to keep with its mission of
documenting reality, analyzing it, and making our findings publicly known to
the Israeli public, and worldwide,” it said in a statement.
Israel passed a law in 2018 preventing lectures or
activities in schools by groups that support legal action being taken against
Israeli soldiers abroad. The law was apparently drafted in response to the work
of Breaking the Silence, a whistleblower group for former Israeli soldiers.
It was not clear if Galant’s decree was rooted in the
2018 law.
Israel has long presented itself as a thriving
democracy in which Palestinian citizens, who make up about 20 percent of its
population of 9.2 million, have equal rights. Israel seized east Jerusalem, the
West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 war — lands that are home to nearly 5
million Palestinians and which the Palestinians want for a future state.
B’Tselem and other rights groups argue that the
boundaries separating Israel and the West Bank vanished long ago — at least for
Israeli settlers, who can freely travel back and forth, while their Palestinian
neighbors require permits to enter Israel.
Israel withdrew troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005
but imposed a blockade after the Palestinian militant Hamas group seized power
there two years later. It considers the West Bank “disputed” territory whose
fate should be determined in peace talks. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in 1967
in a move not recognized internationally and considers the entire city its
unified capital. Most Palestinians in east Jerusalem are Israeli “residents,”
but not citizens with voting rights.
Israel adamantly rejects the term apartheid, saying
the restrictions it imposes in Gaza and the West Bank are temporary measures
needed for security. Most Palestinians in the West Bank live in areas governed
by the Palestinian Authority, but those areas are surrounded by Israeli
checkpoints and Israeli soldiers can enter at any time. Israel has full control
over 60 percent of the West Bank.
B’Tselem argues that by dividing up the territories
and using different means of control, Israel masks the underlying reality —
that roughly 7 million Jews and 7 million Palestinians live under a single
system with vastly unequal rights.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2021/01/18/Israel-to-ban-groups-that-call-it-an-apartheid-state-
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Israeli warplanes hit Gaza after rocketfire: army
18 January 2021
Israel's military said Monday its fighter planes
struck Hamas facilities in the Gaza Strip after Palestinians fired rockets at
the Jewish state.
Two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards the
coast near the southern city of Ashdod, according to a military statement.
“In response...fighter jets struck military targets
belonging to the Hamas terror organisation in the Gaza Strip, including tunnel
digging sites,” the army said.
There were no reports of any damage from Palestinian
rockets, with Israeli army sources indicating they had landed in the
Mediterranean sea.
Palestinian security sources in Gaza said the Israeli
fire hit “farmland” in the southern Khan Yunis area of the enclave, causing
damage but no injuries.
There was no immediate claim for the rocket launches
from Hamas-ruled Gaza.
Palestinians in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West
Bank are heading for respective legislative and presidential elections in May
and July, the first in 15 years.
The polls are part of a warming of ties between Hamas
and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's West Bank-based Fatah party.
The dates were announced on Friday in a presidential
decree by Abbas.
In the last Palestinian parliamentary elections in
2006, Hamas won an unexpected landslide.
The polls resulted in a brief unity government but it
soon collapsed. In 2007, bloody clashes erupted between the two principal
Palestinian factions, with Hamas ultimately seizing control of Gaza.
Last week an Israeli tank fired at “a Hamas military
post” in the southern Gaza Strip, after shots were fired at a military vehicle
working on its side of the border fence, the Israeli army said.
In late December Hamas and Islamic Jihad staged joint
military exercises in the coastal territory, during which they fired rockets
out to sea, in the first exercise of its kind.
The Palestinian forces also simulated various combat
scenarios with Israeli troops, an AFP reporter said.
The events marked the anniversary of the first Hamas
war with Israel, in 2008, a year after the Islamists took power in Gaza.Since
then they have fought two more wars, in 2012 and 2014.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2021/01/18/Israeli-warplanes-hit-Gaza-after-rocketfire-army
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Coronavirus: Israel exchanges medical data for Pfizer
COVID-19 vaccine doses
18 January 2021
After sprinting ahead in the race to inoculate its
population against the coronavirus, Israel has struck a deal with Pfizer,
promising to share vast troves of medical data with the international drug
giant in exchange for the continued flow of its hard-to-get vaccine.
Read the latest updates in our dedicated coronavirus
section.
Proponents say the deal could allow Israel to become
the first country to vaccinate most of its population, while providing valuable
research that could help the rest of the world. But critics say the deal raises
major ethical concerns, including possible privacy violations and a deepening
of the global divide that enables wealthy countries to stockpile vaccines as
poorer populations, including Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank
and Gaza, have to wait longer to be inoculated.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — who is stumping
ahead of the country’s March elections as Israel’s vaccinator-in-chief — said
earlier this month that he reached the deal with Pfizer’s chief executive to
speed up vaccine deliveries to Israel.
“Israel will be a global model state,” he said.
“Israel will share with Pfizer and with the entire world the statistical data
that will help develop strategies for defeating the coronavirus.”
Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein told The
Associated Press the government will turn over data to “see how it influences,
first of all, the level of the disease in Israel, the possibility to open the
economy, different aspects of social life, and whether there are any effects of
the vaccination.”
Pfizer’s vaccine, developed with German partner
BioNTech, has received emergency approval from the US Food and Drug
Administration and the European Union’s regulatory agency and is believed to
provide up to 95 percent protection against COVID-19. But much remains unknown,
including its long-term protection and whether it can prevent transmission of
the virus.
Israel, home to some 9.3 million people, is considered
an ideal place for studying these questions. Its mandatory universal health
care is provided by four publicly funded HMOs with meticulously digitized
medical records. This centralized system has helped Israel administer more than
2 million doses of the vaccine in under a month. Israel has also purchased
doses of the Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines.
The Health Ministry has recorded over 543,00 cases
since the beginning of the pandemic and nearly 4,000 deaths. Israeli officials
say they aim to have most of the country vaccinated by the end of March.
But the exact quid pro quo between Israel and Pfizer
is unclear, even after a redacted version of the agreement was released by the
Israeli Health Ministry on Sunday.
Neither Israel nor Pfizer would say how much Israel
has paid for the vaccines, though Edelstein called it a “classical win-win” for
both sides. Israeli media have reported that Israel paid at least 50 percent
more than other countries. The data is reportedly being shared with the World
Health Organization, but the global body did not respond to repeated requests
for comment.
Earlier this month, the head of the WHO appealed to
drugmakers and wealthier countries to “stop making bilateral deals,” saying
they hurt a UN-backed effort to widen access. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus did
not single out any countries or companies.
Last week, Dr. Siddhartha Datta, WHO Europe’s program
manager for vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization, said the agency is
trying to collect “disaggregated” data — based on age, gender, local area,
employment and other factors — and reporting on any safety issues as the
vaccines are deployed.
Israel had already announced the acquisition of
millions of vaccine doses before the Pfizer deal was announced. It’s unclear
how the quantity or pace of deliveries has changed, or whether the vaccines
have been diverted from other countries.
The arrangement has drawn attention to the unequal
distribution of vaccines between rich and poor nations. A recent estimate from
the International Rescue Committee said that the WHO’s global COVAX campaign is
likely to vaccinate only 20 percent of the world’s lower-income countries by
the end of 2021.
“This is a shady, under-the-table deal that
preferences certain countries over others without any transparency,” said
Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University in
Washington. “In the end, it’s going to be low- and middle-income countries that
are going to be left behind.”
Dr. Nadav Davidovitch, head of the school of public
health at Israel’s Ben Gurion University and an adviser to the government on
coronavirus policy, said the deal has raised troubling concerns about the
deepening disparity of vaccination efforts.
“In order to eradicate COVID-19 or at least control it
in an efficient manner, we need to see the global picture,” Davidovitch said.
That disparity is particularly striking in the case of
Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, who live under varying
degrees of Israeli control and have yet to receive any vaccines.
While vaccinating its own Arab citizens and
Palestinian residents of Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem, Israel says it is not
responsible for inoculating the Palestinians. Edelstein said Israel will
consider helping once it takes care of its own citizens.
But the Palestinians and major human rights groups say
Israel remains an occupying power and is responsible for providing them
vaccines. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh recently accused Israel
of “racism” but has not publicly requested vaccines.
With tens of thousands of West Bank Palestinians
working in Israel and its West Bank settlements, experts say Israel should
share vaccines on ethical and practical grounds.
“I truly think that we need to see how we get the
vaccine for the Palestinian Authority,” said Davidovitch, acting chairman of
Israel’s association of public health professionals. “We are talking about it
with the minister of health, and I really hope that soon this thing will be
solved.”
It’s also uncertain exactly what information is being
shared with Pfizer. According to the redacted agreement, “no identifiable
health information” shall be shared, and the research is to be published in a
recognized medical journal.
It said Israel will provide weekly data to Pfizer about
various age and demographic groups. The objective, it said, is to “analyze
epidemiological data arising from the product rollout, to determine whether
herd immunity is achieved after reaching a certain percentage of vaccination
coverage in Israel.”
The data, it added, is “aimed at helping end the
global COVID-19 pandemic for the benefit of all patients inside and outside of
Israel.”
Privacy Israel, an advocacy group that had petitioned
the government to disclose the deal, welcomed its release but said certain
questions remained unanswered, mostly about the handling and security of
private information. It also blacked out certain details, such as key dates and
the names of officials involved. Still, it said there is a “little more
certainty” about sharing information with a global corporation.
Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, an expert in digital
privacy at the Israel Democracy Institute, questioned the ethics of a deal that
could bring millions in profits to Pfizer. She also said sharing large
quantities of information could still potentially put individuals’ privacy at
risk, even if it’s supposedly made anonymous.
“If, God forbid, the data set is going to be hacked,
then the risk is going to be yours,” she said, referring to Israeli citizens.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/coronavirus/2021/01/18/Coronavirus-Coronavirus-Israel-strikes-deal-to-exchange-medical-data-for-Pfizer-COVID-19-vaccine
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Coronavirus: Israel Prison Service to vaccinate
Palestinian inmates
17 January 2021
The Israel Prison Service said Sunday it began
vaccinating all incarcerated people against COVID-19, including Palestinians,
following calls from rights groups, Palestinian officials and Israel’s attorney
general.
Israel has given at least one vaccine dose to more
than two million of its citizens, a pace widely described as the world’s
fastest per capita.
But Israel faced harsh criticism when Public Security
Minister Amir Ohana said Palestinian prisoners would be the last to get
inoculated.
Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit wrote to
Ohana condemning the comment as “tainted with illegality,” Israel’s Ma’ariv
newspaper reported.
Israeli and global rights groups, including Amnesty
International, as well as the Palestine Liberation Organization have also
issued public calls for Israel to vaccinate the estimated 4,400 Palestinians
held in its jails.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, about
250 Palestinians in Israeli prisons have tested positive for the novel
coronavirus.
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein announced last week
that the first vaccine doses would be distributed to prisons over the coming
days.
The prison service issued a statement Sunday saying 20
detainees had been given an initial dose of the vaccine, without specifying
whether they were Israelis or Palestinians.
Earlier on Sunday it had said, “following the
vaccination of staff... the vaccination of detainees will begin in prisons in
accordance with medical and operational protocol established by the Prison
Service.”
A prison service spokesperson told AFP the directive
applied to “all prisoners, without distinction.”
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said in a statement
that three Palestinian prisoners had been vaccinated.
Human Rights Watch on Sunday called on Israel to
provide vaccinations for the 2.8 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank
and the two million Palestinians in Israeli-blockaded Gaza.
The group’s Israel and Palestine director Omar Shakir
particularly criticized the practice of vaccinating Jewish settlers in the West
Bank, but not their Palestinian neighbors.
“Nothing can justify today’s reality in parts of the
West Bank, where people on one side of the street are receiving vaccines, while
those on the other do not, based on whether they’re Jewish or Palestinian,”
Shakir said.
“Everyone in the same territory should have equitable
access to the vaccine, regardless of their ethnicity.”
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/coronavirus/2021/01/18/Coronavirus-Israel-prison-service-to-vaccinate-Palestinian-inmates
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Palestinian President Abbas briefs Egypt, Jordan on
election plan
17 January 2021
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday hosted
the Egyptian and Jordanian intelligence chiefs to brief them on plans to hold
the first Palestinian elections in 14 years.
Abbas issued a decree on Friday announcing plans for
parliamentary elections in May and a presidential election in July. The rival
Islamic militant group Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip from
Abbas’ forces in 2007, welcomed the decree.
The elections would mark a major step toward
reconciling the Palestinian rift between Abbas’ Fatah movement, which runs the
West Bank, and Hamas. But many obstacles remain, and past attempts at
reconciliation have repeatedly failed.
In a statement, Abbas’ office said it briefed the Egyptian
and Jordanian delegations on “the latest developments related to the
Palestinian issue, specifically the national reconciliation file” and thanked
both countries for their assistance.
Jordan borders the West Bank, while Egypt border Gaza.
The rival Palestinian factions are to meet in Egypt
next week, hoping to settle their differences before election campaigning kicks
off.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2021/01/17/Palestinian-President-Abbas-briefs-Egypt-Jordan-on-election-plan
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Israel approves hundreds of settlement homes in
last-minute push
17 January 2021
Israeli authorities on Sunday advanced plans to build
an additional 780 homes in West Bank settlements, an anti-settlement monitoring
group said, in a last-minute surge of approvals before the friendly Trump
administration leaves office later this week.
Peace Now said that over 90 percent of the homes lay
deep inside the West Bank, which the Palestinians seek as the heartland of a
future independent state, and over 200 homes were located in unauthorized
outposts that the government had decided to legalize.
Israel has stepped up settlement construction during
President Donald Trump’s term. According to Peace Now, Israel approved or
advanced construction of over 12,000 settlement homes in 2020, the highest
number in a single year since it began recording statistics in 2012.
“By promoting hundreds of settlement units, Prime
Minister Netanyahu is once again putting his personal political interests over
those of the country,” the group said. “Not only will this settlement activity
erode the possibility for a conflict-ending resolution with the Palestinians in
the long-term, but in the short-term it needlessly sets Israel on a collision
course with the incoming Biden administration.”
Netanyahu’s office had no comment. But last week, he
said he would seek approvals for the construction projects. They include 100
homes in Tal Menashe, a settlement where an Israeli woman was killed last month
in an attack for which a Palestinian man has been charged.
The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank, captured
by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, as part of a future independent state. They
say the growing settler population, approaching some 500,000 people, makes it
increasingly difficult to achieve their dream of independence.
A string of US administrations, along with the rest of
the international community, opposed settlement construction. But Trump,
surrounded by a team of advisers with close ties to the settler movement, took
a different approach. His administration did not criticize Israeli settlement
announcements, and in a landmark decision, announced in 2018 that it did not
consider settlements to be illegal under international law.
As a result, Israel approved plans for over 27,000 settler
homes during Trump’s four-year term, more than 2.5 times the number approved
during the Obama administration’s second term, according to Peace Now.
President-elect Joe Biden is expected to return to the
traditional US position of opposing settlements, setting the stage for a
possible clash with Netanyahu.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2021/01/17/Israel-approves-hundreds-of-settlement-homes-in-last-minute-push
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Russian freight ship sinks off Turkey’s Black Sea
coast - governor
17 January 2021
A Russian freight ship has sunk off the coast of
Turkey’s Black Sea province of Bartin, the local governor was cited as saying
by state media on Sunday, adding that rescuers were working to save some 15
crew members stranded at sea.
Bartin Governor Sinan Guner said the dry cargo ship
sank off the coast of the Inkumu region, adding there were no reports of
casualties, according to the state-owned Anadolu news agency. The cause of the
incident was not immediately clear.
“We will start the rescue operations of the
approximately 15 crew members stuck on three lifeboats,” Guner said. “There are
no reports of casualties or of the lifeboats sinking right now. Weather
conditions are poor, rescue teams are also struggling to go out,” he was cited
as saying.
No further details were immediately available.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2021/01/17/Russian-freight-ship-sinks-off-Turkey-s-Black-Sea-coast-governor
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Iran urges UN watchdog to avoid publishing
‘unnecessary’ nuclear program details
17 January 2021
Iran urged the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog to
avoid publishing “unnecessary” details on Tehran’s nuclear program, state TV
reported Sunday, a day after Germany, France and Britain said Tehran has “no
credible civilian use” for its development of uranium metal.
The report quoted a statement from Iran’s nuclear
department that asked the International Atomic Energy Agency to avoid
publishing details on Iran’s nuclear program that may cause confusion.
“It is expected the international atomic energy agency
avoid providing unnecessary details and prevent paving ground for
misunderstanding” in the international community, the statement said. It did
not elaborate.
On Saturday, Germany, France and Britain pressed Iran
to back off its plan to develop uranium metal, calling it “the latest planned
violation” of its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The goal of the deal is
to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, something Iran insists it does
not want to do.
“Iran has no credible civilian use for uranium metal,”
they said in a joint statement. “The production of uranium metal has
potentially grave military implications.”
On Thursday, the IAEA said Iran had informed it that
it had begun installing equipment for the production of uranium metal. It said
Tehran maintains its plans to conduct research and development on uranium metal
production are part of its “declared aim to design an improved type of fuel.”
Iran reacted to the European statement Sunday saying
Iran informed the UN nuclear watchdog nearly two decades ago of its plans for
the “peaceful and conventional” production of uranium metal. It also said it
provided updated information to the agency two years ago about its plans to
produce silicide advanced fuel.
The statement said uranium metal is an “intermediate
product” in the manufacture of uranium silicide, a fuel used in nuclear
reactors that is safer and has more power capability than uranium oxide-based
fuel, which Iran currently produces. The three European nations alongside the
US, Russia and China signed the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran that prohibited
research and production of uranium metal. President Donald Trump in 2018
unilaterally withdrew the US from Iran’s nuclear deal, in which Tehran had
agreed to limit its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic
sanctions. After the US then ramped up sanctions, Iran gradually and publicly
abandoned the deal’s limits on its nuclear development.
President-elect Joe Biden, who was vice president when
the deal was signed during the Obama administration, has said he hopes to
return the US to the deal.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2021/01/17/Iran-urges-UN-watchdog-to-avoid-publishing-unnecessary-nuclear-program-details-
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Iran’s long-range missile land close to US Navy ships
in Indian Ocean
Ismaeel Naar
16 January 2021
Long-range missiles from Iran landed close to a
commercial ship in the Indian Ocean and 100 miles from the Nimitz aircraft
carrier strike group of the US Navy, according to a Fox News report.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards test-fired ballistic
missiles against targets in the Indian Ocean as they wrapped up a two-day
exercise on Saturday, their official website reported.
The missiles of “various classes” targeted “the enemy’s
battleships and destroyed them from 1,800 kilometers (1,125 miles) away,”
according to the Sepahnews website.
A video released by state television showed two
missiles being launched and targets being hit at sea.
Iran's armed forces chief of staff Major General
Mohammad Bagheri was present on the second day of the drill, alongside
Guards chief Major General Hossein Salami and
aerospace commander Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh.
"One of our major goals in defence policies and
strategies is to be able to target enemy ships, including aircraft carriers and
battleships, using long-range ballistic missiles," Salami said, quoted by
Sepahnews.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2021/01/16/Iran-military-Iran-s-long-range-missile-land-close-to-commercial-ship-US-Navy-ships-in-Indian-Ocea
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Distrust, division and doubt cloud Palestinian
election call
16 January 2021
Beset by political infighting, split between three
territories and distrustful of their institutions, many Palestinians are skeptical
that their first national elections in 15 years will bring change - or even
happen at all.
President Mahmoud Abbas said on Friday that
parliamentary and presidential elections would be held later this year in a bid
to heal long-standing divisions. His main rival, the militant Islamist group
Hamas, welcomed the move.
The announcement is widely seen as a gesture aimed at
pleasing US President-elect Joe Biden, with whom the Palestinians want to reset
relations after they reached a low under Donald Trump.
But a December poll by the Palestinian Center for
Policy and Survey Research found 52 percent of Palestinians think elections
held under present conditions would not be fair and free.
If Hamas won, 76 percent thought Fatah - the party led
by Abbas - would not accept the result and 58 percent believed Hamas would
reject a Fatah victory.
“We have taken an important step but we still have a
long way to go,” said veteran West Bank political analyst Hani al-Masri. “Great
obstacles remain and without overcoming these obstacles the whole operation
will be doomed to fail.”
Palestinian observers said those hurdles include
disagreements within Hamas and Fatah - long the dominant faction in the
umbrella Palestine Liberation Organization.
It is unclear what mechanism would be put in place to
ensure a free election, whether international observers would take part and
whether Abbas, aged 85 and in poor health, would run.
The US, Israel and European Union would likely refuse
dealings with any Palestinian government that included Hamas, which is
designated by the West as a terrorist group.
Power struggle
Israeli officials did not immediately comment and it
was unclear whether Israel would permit election activity to take place in East
Jerusalem, as it did previously. Palestinians want to hold the elections there,
as well as the West Bank and Gaza.
“We have other alternatives, and what is important is
that people from Jerusalem can take part in the election,” Hanna Nasir,
chairman of the Palestinian Central Election Committee, said on Saturday.
The last parliamentary ballot, in 2006, ended in a
surprise win by Hamas in their first-ever national elections, creating a rift
with Fatah that plunged into civil war when Hamas seized control of Gaza the
following year.
Gaza is now a Hamas stronghold, while Abbas’s power
base is in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
The two groups have failed to achieve lasting
reconciliation, and previous pledges to hold elections went unfulfilled. Rights
groups have accused both of suppressing political opposition.
Abbas said the parliamentary election will be held on
May 22 and the presidential vote on July 31. He won in 2005 but his term was
only meant to last four years.
Many ordinary Palestinians are skeptical.
“They will find a thousand reasons to call it off;
Israel, the resistance, power-sharing, anything. I don’t have any hopes,” said
one Gaza man, who asked not to be named because he was breaking a coronavirus
lockdown.
Zuheir al-Khatib, a 57-year-old doctor from Bethlehem,
was more optimistic.
“This is a 100 percent good decision, merited for over
15 years, if not more, we are supposed to be initiating a state and thus should
have democracy,” he said.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2021/01/16/Distrust-division-and-doubt-cloud-Palestinian-election-call
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Turkish court sentences former pro-Kurdish MP to over
six years in jail
17 January 2021
A Turkish court has sentenced a former lawmaker from
the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), who was stripped of his
parliamentary status in early 2018, to more than six years in jail on charges
of hatred incitement and spreading propaganda for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK) militant group.
On Sunday, the 21st Heavy Penal Court in Ankara found
that the defendant, Ferhat Encu, shared pro-PKK posts on his social media
accounts, called for an uprising against the government, and worked to split up
a portion of the Turkish territory. He was sentenced to six years, nine months
and seven days in jail.
“It has been established that he included the symbols
of the terrorist group, called the anti-terror operations barbarism, praised
the terrorist acts of the PKK based on violence and threats,” the court said in
the verdict.
The Turkish government has long accused the HDP of having
links to the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the US as
well as the EU, and has been calling for an autonomous Kurdish region since
1984.
Back on December 21 last year, a court in Turkey’s
southeastern Kurdish city of Diyarbakir sentenced a former member of parliament
from the HDP to more than 22 years in prison on terror-related charges.
The court also issued an arrest warrant against
55-year-old Leyla Guven.
The prosecutor in the case charged Guven with
“establishing and managing an illegal organization” of which she was also a
member in support of PKK militants, among 18 separate charges.
Other charges included “provoking the public to join
illegal meetings and demonstrations,” and taking part in “illegal” marches,
which she purportedly refused to disband despite warnings.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/01/17/643229/Turkish-court-pro-Kurdish-MP
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