A Drastic and Holistic Review of Existing Shariah Criminal Laws Required, says The Malaysia Syariah Lawyers Association
New
Age Islam News Bureau
26
February 2021
The
Federal Court has ruled that states have no powers to enact shariah laws
against crimes that are already listed in the federal Penal Code.
------------
• India’s
sudden peace push with nuclear rivals China, Pakistan shows Biden impact
• New
interreligious aide to Imran Khan says minorities in Pakistan “not second class
citizens”
• Iran
Raps Netanyahu for Resorting to Bigoted Lies to Promote Iranophobia
• Indian
coast guard rescue 81 Rohingya refugees adrift at sea, 8 dead
• US
urges India, Pakistan to hold direct talks on Kashmir; welcomes joint statement
on LoC ceasefire
• Report:
US bombs Iraq’s anti-terror fighters on Biden’s order
• COVID-19
pandemic inequalities favor ‘terrorism’: Jordan’s King Abdullah
• Germany
bans IS-glorifying Salafist Muslim group
Southeast
Asia
• Review
shariah laws to stop any new challenges, say Muslim lawyers
• Malaysia
consulted world’s leading Muslim ulamas on Covid-19 vaccination, says Islamic
affairs minister
• SIS
hails ‘important’ court decision for LGBTQ community
• Non-Muslim
wedding ceremonies allowed in non-EMCO areas
• Non-Muslims
will pay heavier price for sodomy, says Federal Court
• After
landmark ruling on Selangor ‘unnatural sex’ offence, lawyers say now clear
Parliament has primacy for criminal law
--------
India
• India’s
sudden peace push with nuclear rivals China, Pakistan shows Biden impact
• Jharkhand:
Married Muslim man held for ‘trying to lure’ Hindu woman
• Love
jihad law in upcoming House session: Rupani at Godhra rally
• UP
court reserves order on plea for status quo in Shahi Idgah mosque premises
• Kashmir:
Mainstream parties, Hurriyat welcome Indo-Pak ceasefire
• Would
be compelled to take pre-emptive strike when confronted by imminent terror
attack: India at UN
• Mamata
govt forms 8-member board for Rajbanshi Muslims
• AMU
student goes missing, cops trace location to Delhi
• Riots,
markaz wounds still raw, Chauhan Banger gets ready to vote in civic bypolls
--------
Pakistan
• New
interreligious aide to Imran Khan says minorities in Pakistan “not second class
citizens”
• FATF
grey-listing cost Pakistan $38 billion: Report
• Pakistani
lawmaker lambasted for Hindu goddess tweet
• Fazl
promises ‘big’ opposition surprise
• PM
Imran welcomes Sri Lankan govt's decision allowing Muslims to bury Covid-19
victims
--------
Mideast
• Iran
Raps Netanyahu for Resorting to Bigoted Lies to Promote Iranophobia
• Iran:
US Assassination of General Soleimani Violation of Int'l Law
• UN
calls on Israel to immediately stop demolishing Palestinian homes, buildings in
West Bank
• Turkey
‘strongly condemns attempted coup’ in Armenia
• Iran
says it’s investigating deadly incident on Pakistan border
• Houthis
target Marib residential area with ballistic missile
• Hamas
urges Palestinian Authority to release members jailed in West Bank
• Netanyahu
asked Biden to keep Trump's sanctions on ICC: Report
--------
South
Asia
• Indian
coast guard rescue 81 Rohingya refugees adrift at sea, 8 dead
• Expect
Productive Peace Talks With Afghan Govt In Doha, Say Taliban
• Germany
extends its mission in Afghanistan
• McKenzie
placed a ‘large measure of the blame’ on the Taliban for extreme violence
• Top
Democrat expects some ‘extension’ of troops in Afghanistan
• Taliban
attack on Afghan district repulsed, 12 killed
--------
North
America
• US
urges India, Pakistan to hold direct talks on Kashmir; welcomes joint statement
on LoC ceasefire
• Biden
says he has read US intel on Khashoggi killing
• Biden
orders US strikes on Iran-backed militia in Syria: Pentagon
• Don’t
make same Iran mistakes as Obama, US members of Congress tell Biden
• US
military strike on resistance fighters draws strong condemnation
• Biden
pressed to clarify policy on Saudi aggression against Yemen
--------
Arab
World
• Report:
US bombs Iraq’s anti-terror fighters on Biden’s order
• US
strikes 'Iranian-backed militant' site in Syria: Pentagon
• Russia
says its closely monitoring situation in Syria following US airstrikes
• Saudi
Arabia’s King Salman and US President Biden discuss regional security
• Iran’s
Zarif talks to Syrian FM after US strikes on Iran-backed militia in Syria
• Bahrain’s
Crown Prince, Israeli PM say countries must be involved in Iran talks
• Arab
Coalition stops second Houthi attack on Saudi Arabia hours after failed attempt
• Saudi
Foreign Minister discusses regional challenges with US counterpart
--------
Africa
• COVID-19
pandemic inequalities favor ‘terrorism’: Jordan’s King Abdullah
• Erdogan
named 2020 Global Muslim Personality
• Libyan
PM-designate Dbeibeh to propose unified cabinet under UN aegis
• Several
schoolchildren kidnapped in northwest Nigeria: State governor spokesperson
--------
Europe
• Germany
bans IS-glorifying Salafist Muslim group
• UK
Supreme Court rejects Daesh bride Shamima Begum’s legal bid to return
• Palestinians
hire UK-based law firm to prosecute Britain over 1917 Balfour Declaration
• UK’s
largest Muslim charity cleared of institutional anti-Semitism
Compiled
by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/a-drastic-holistic-review-existing/d/124404
--------
Review
shariah laws to stop any new challenges, say Muslim lawyers
February
25, 2021
The
Federal Court has ruled that states have no powers to enact shariah laws
against crimes that are already listed in the federal Penal Code.
----------
PETALING
JAYA: The Malaysia Syariah Lawyers Association is calling for a drastic and
holistic review of existing shariah criminal laws so that no other law will be
challenged and undermined by anyone, following a Federal Court ruling that
states cannot enact laws on offences against the precepts of Islam for Muslims
if it is already on the Federal List.
The
association’s president Musa Awang said in a statement today that the ruling
would have great implications on the country’s shariah legislation, especially
for criminal offences under the states’ shariah criminal enactments.
“This
means the state legislative bodies do not have the power to enact laws
regarding shariah criminal offences if there are similar laws under the Federal
law passed by Parliament, even though the offences carried out by an individual
professing Islam were against the ‘precepts of Islam’, as stated in List 2 –
State List of the Federal Constitution.”
He
said the ruling meant it would be difficult for the state legislature to draft
laws on shariah offences, as long as the offences were covered under federal
law.
Musa
added that the court ruling will also open up avenues for parties to challenge
other laws in the states’ shariah criminal enactments.
The
Federal Court ruling also seems to be “closing the door” on earlier proposals
to carry out hudud and qisas laws in the country.
“This
is because hudud offences such as theft (sariqah), robbery (hirabah), and qisas
offences such as murder (al-qatl) are listed in the Penal Code.”
Earlier
today, Chief Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat had allowed a declaration by a
35-year-old man that the Selangor state legislature was incompetent to pass a
shariah law that makes it an offence to engage in unnatural sex.
The
man, whose identity is being withheld on the request of his lawyers, sought to
challenge the competency of the Selangor state legislature to enact Section 28
of the Syariah Criminal Offences (Selangor) Enactment.
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2021/02/25/review-shariah-laws-to-stop-any-new-challenges-say-muslim-lawyers/
--------
India’s
sudden peace push with nuclear rivals China, Pakistan shows Biden impact
Feb
26, 2021
(L-R) Pakistan PM Imran Khan, PM Narendra Modi, US Persident Joe
Biden and Chinese Persidenr Xi Jinping
---------
After
a year of some of the worst fighting on India’s frontiers with Pakistan and
China, all three countries are suddenly talking peace as they wait to see how
President Joe Biden will shift policy in the region.
India
and China’s foreign ministers on Thursday discussed plans to disengage troops
from their Himalayan border, which last year saw the deadliest clashes since
the 1970s.
The
phone call between S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, which
stretched for more than an hour, came shortly after India and Pakistan released
a rare joint statement by senior army officials announcing a halt in operations
along their border.
The
moves reduce tensions in one of Asia’s top flashpoints, where three
nuclear-armed countries regularly challenge each other’s territorial claims.
While India and Pakistan have fought three wars since Independence and barely
have any trade, tensions between New Delhi and Beijing escalated last year to
the point where Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government banned hundreds of
Chinese apps and slowed investment approvals.
The
detente in South Asia shows all three countries responding to initiatives from
the Biden administration, which is formulating policy toward the region
following the unpredictable years of President Donald Trump. Pakistan wants to
show the US its not too close to China, Beijing wants to lower the temperature
as Biden courts New Delhi and India is hedging its bets as it prepares to host
BRICS leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping later this year.
“On
the one hand India hopes that the US-China peer rivalry means India remains
important and Pakistan — as an ally of China — will face more pressure,” said
Aparna Pande, director of the Initiative on the Future of India and South Asia
at Washington-based Hudson Institute. “But Delhi is not sure how strong
Washington will be vis-a-vis Beijing, so a temporary ceasefire with Pakistan
and slow disengagement with China may buy some time and relieve immediate
pressure on India.”
India’s
borders with Pakistan and China stretch nearly 7,000 kilometers (4,300 miles).
Though India and Chinese troops have started pulling back their troops from
some parts of the contested border in the remote Himalayan region, there are
still areas where soldiers are facing off.
India’s
foreign ministry said Jaishankar stressed to Wang the need to improve bilateral
relations and ensure peace on the contested border between the two nations.
Wang, meanwhile, called on China and India to firmly follow the right path of
mutual trust and cooperation and “promote pragmatic cooperation,” Chinese state
media reported.
New
Delhi and Islamabad in 2003 signed a cease-fire agreement along their
742-kilometer (460-mile) Himalayan frontier, known as the Line of Control, but
that truce has been violated repeatedly. Tensions worsened after August 2019
when PM Modi revoked the special status of Jammu & Kashmir.
‘No
one should question’
“In
the interest of achieving mutually beneficial and sustainable peace along the
borders,” top military officials from both nations “agreed to address each
other’s core issues and concerns,” they said in the statement.
The
agreement “will save innocent lives so no one should question the intent,”
Moeed W Yusuf, special assistant to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, said
on Twitter. “Nor should wrong inferences be drawn. There is nothing more than
meets the eye here.”
The
Biden administration welcomed the announcement on reimplementing the 2003
ceasefire agreement, which it had advocated. “When it comes to the US role, we
continue to support direct dialogue between India and Pakistan on Kashmir and
other issues of concern,” US State Department spokesman Ned Price told
reporters.
Previous
moves toward peace between India and Pakistan, including a statement in May
2018 after an escalation of cross-border shelling, have dissipated quickly.
Whether they can actually build on this and move toward a more permanent peace
remains an open question, but at least for the moment the shifting geopolitical
winds are providing a seemingly rare opportunity to talk instead of fight.
“It
eases the pressure,” Najmuddin Shaikh, Pakistan’s former foreign secretary and
ambassador to nations including the US, said by phone when asked about the ceasefire.
“Essentially what needs to come ahead is what has been proposed — that there be
a resumption of dialogue.”
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/indias-sudden-peace-push-with-nuclear-rivals-china-pakistan-shows-biden-impact/articleshow/81224954.cms
--------
New
interreligious aide to Imran Khan says minorities in Pakistan “not second class
citizens”
23
February 2021
Prime
minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, and his new aide, Hafiz Muhammad Tahir
Mehmood Ashrafi, at a meeting in June 2020 [Image credit: paktribune.com]
-----
After
an announcement in December 2020, the Pakistani government has renewed a
commitment to protect minorities and promote religious tolerance with the
appointment of a special aide to advise Prime Minister Imran Khan on interreligious
matters.
Acknowledging
a need to restrain the abuse of “blasphemy” laws and protect all victims of
false accusation, as well as Christians and other religious minorities from
forced marriage to Muslims and forced conversions, the government has appointed
Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi as Special Assistant to the Prime Minister
on Religious Harmony and Middle East.
Ashrafi
is a respected Muslim scholar and Chairman of the Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC).
Ulema (or Alim, singular) refers to those considered the most authoritative
scholars and religious teachers in Islam including theologians, Islamic law
interpreters and officials (mufti), Islamic judges (qadis), and professors.
Within
the country, Ashrafi encouraged new and open dialogue on issues including
terrorism, extremism, corruption and electoral reforms. A national meeting of
leaders representing all religions groups within Pakistan is to take place in
early March, inviting discussion and ideas that will contribute to improving
government policies for minorities.
Significant
stance taken against second-class status of Christians
In
a significant statement, Ashrafi affirmed that minorities living in Pakistan
are “not second-class citizens” and guaranteed that they will be protected
under the rights and privileges enshrined in the constitution of Pakistan.
Christians
are often despised by the majority-Muslim population in Pakistan and referred
to as “sweepers” or Chuhra as a term of derision. This is partly because most
of the Christian population in Pakistan today are descended from “untouchable”
people who formed the lowest level of Punjab society and were seen as inferior
and “unclean”. Most Christians today in Pakistan are confined to low-paid
menial jobs such as street sweeping and latrine cleaning.
Another
factor is that Christians and Jews living as minorities under Islam are also
deemed to have second-class status in accordance with classical Islamic concept
of dhimmi. Dhimmi are considered inferior to Muslims, but are allowed to live and
practise their faith so long as they submit themselves to the Islamic
authorities and follow a number of demeaning and humiliating regulations
including paying jizya, the traditional tax imposed on subjugated Jews and
Christians by an Islamic state. This aspect of sharia is not enforced in
Pakistan, but the general mindset of Christians being inferior to Muslims is
very prevalent.
Grievance
helpline set up to report false accusations of “blasphemy”
Ashrafi
has already set up a grievance helpline to resolve complaints of false
“blasphemy” accusations or any threats made on religious grounds. The grievance
helpline is open to all citizens and Ashrafi especially urged non-Muslim
minorities to register complaints about any threats they face that arise from freely
practising their religion.
Pakistan’s
notorious “blasphemy” laws are often used to make false accusations in order to
settle personal grudges. Christians are especially vulnerable, as merely
stating certain Christian beliefs can be construed as “blasphemy” against Islam
or insulting to Muhammad, and the lower courts usually favour the testimony of
Muslims, in accordance with sharia (Islamic law).
Among
Ashrafi’s first tasks was the appointment of a network of Religious Harmony
Council Conveners across the country who will work at a local level to promote
tolerance between all religious groups. A central coordination centre has also
been set up to address the misuse of “blasphemy” laws and any propaganda
considered damaging to interreligious tolerance in Pakistan.
“No
space” for forced marriages and forced conversions in Islam says aide
According
to Ashrafi, there is "no space for forceful conversions and underage
forceful marriages in Islam". At a youth conference in Peshawar, Ashrafi
stated that complaints of forced marriages and conversions will be “probed case
by case”. “Daughters of minorities are as respected and honoured as other
daughters of the nation,” said the aide.
Non-Muslim
girls and young women in Pakistan are frequently kidnapped and forced to
convert to Islam before marrying a Muslim, but the authorities rarely
intervene. It has been estimated that every year several hundred Christian
girls, as well as a smaller number of Hindu girls, suffer such abuse.
https://barnabasfund.org/news/new-interreligious-aide-to-imran-khan-says-minorities-in-pakistan-not-se/
--------
Iran
Raps Netanyahu for Resorting to Bigoted Lies to Promote Iranophobia
2021-February-25
TEHRAN
(FNA)- The Iranian foreign ministry lashed out at Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu for raising allegations against Iran, saying he has now
resorted to "bigoted lies" to conjure Iranophobia.
----------
“Angry
at losing his dupe in the White House, Netanyahu resorts to bigoted lies to
conjure racist Iranophobia,” Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed
Khatibzadeh wrote on his twitter page on Wednesday.
He
said that irked by the failure of his plots against Iran, which has opposed the
regime’s occupation and oppressive policies, Netanyahu is now seeking in vain
to demonize Iran.
“It
must really hurt that his anti-Iran plots have come to naught yet again,”
Khatibzadeh said, adding, “From saving Jews to opposing occupation, Iran has
always fought oppressors. History doesn't lie.”
The
remarks came a day after Netanyahu, a major influence on former President
Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran accord in 2018, said Israel
will not rely on efforts to return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
“With
or without an agreement, we will do everything so [Iran isn’t] armed with
nuclear weapons,” he added.
Israel's
allegations against Iran comes as the Tel Aviv regime is widely believed to be
the sole possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East. Israel maintains a
policy of deliberate ambiguity over its nuclear work and has defied calls to
put its atomic activities under the surveillance of the UN nuclear
watchdog.
Trump,
who described himself as the most Israeli friendly US president ever, withdrew
the US from the Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action (JCPOA) in may 2018, in a move criticized by the international
community but embraced by Israel.
Iran
fully remained committed to the JCPOA for a year even after the US withdrawal,
its reimposition of sanctions and its threats against others that they should
follow US suit or face punitive measures.
In
response to the US measures, Iran took a series of steps in May 2019 to
gradually suspend some of its commitments based on the legal mechanism
stipulated in Articles 26 and 36 of the JCPOA.
In
its latest move, Iran announced on Tuesday that it had suspended implementation
of the Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Safeguards
Agreement, which allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to carry
out short-notice inspections of the country’s nuclear facilities, after the US
failed to lift the sanctions by a deadline of February 23 set by Tehran.
Despite
a halt to the implementation of the Additional Protocol, Iran has pointed out
that it will keep implementing its commitments under the NPT Safeguards
Agreements and will continue cooperation with the IAEA.
https://www.farsnews.ir/en/news/13991207000130/Iran-Raps-Neanyah-fr-Resring-Biged-Lies-Prme-Iranphbia
--------
Indian
coast guard rescue 81 Rohingya refugees adrift at sea, 8 dead
FEB
26, 2021
India's
coast guard found 81 survivors and eight dead on a boat crammed with Muslim
Rohingya refugees adrift in the Andaman Sea, and were repairing the vessel so
that it can return safely to Bangladesh, Indian officials said on Friday.
The
Indian government was in discussions with Bangladesh to agree for the safe
return of the vessel, which was found drifting in international waters, having
left southern Bangladesh about two weeks ago with hopes of reaching Malaysia.
Many
of the survivors, according to Indian officials, were sick and suffering from
extreme dehydration, having run out of food and water after the boat's engine
failed four days after leaving Cox's Bazar, where refugee camps house hundreds
of thousands of Rohingya who have fled neighbouring Myanmar.
"The
engine of the boat broke down earlier this week and we received a SOS from some
Rohingyas, " said an Indian coast guard official overseeing the search and
rescue effort from New Delhi.
"It's
a humanitarian crisis and we are doing the best we can to save their
lives," he said, requesting anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to
the media.
"The
foreign ministry is working towards sending them back to Bangladesh and India
will repair or replace the boat's engine to ensure they can travel back
safely," he said.
The
survivors were being provided with food supplies and medicine, and women and
children have been given fresh clothes. It was unclear what arrangements were
being made for the funeral rites of the people who perished, he added.
Giving
news that the boat had been found, India's External Affairs Ministry spokesman
Anurag Srivastava said on Thursday two Indian coast guard ships were dispatched
to search for the boat following urgent calls for help.
The
United Nations refugee agency had raised the alarm earlier this week over the
missing boat, which had left Cox's Bazar on Feb. 11.
Of
the 90 people that had set out on the voyage, eight were found dead, and one
was missing, Srivasta said. Talks were underway with Bangladesh for the safe
return of the 81 survivors, he added.
"Bangladesh
is respectful of its international obligations under the UNCLOS (The United
Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea)," Bangladesh's foreign ministry
said in a statement.
On
earlier occasions when other littoral countries of the region repeatedly denied
access to Rohingya adrift at sea, it was the Bangladesh that came to the
rescue, the ministry added.
More
than 1 million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar are living in crowded camps in
Bangladesh, including tens of thousands who fled after Myanmar's military
conducted a deadly crackdown in 2017.
Human
traffickers often lure Rohingya refugees, promising them work in Southeast
Asian nations.
The
Bangladesh statement said the boat had been traced approximately 1,700 km
(1,056 miles) away from Bangladesh and 147 km (91 miles) from India's Andaman
and Nicobar Islands.
"Other
states, particularly those on whose territorial water the vessel has been
found, bear the primary responsibility and they should fulfil their obligation
under international law and burden-sharing principle," the ministry said.
India
is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, which spells out refugee
rights and state responsibilities to protect them. Nor does it have a domestic
law protecting refugees, though it currently hosts more than 200,000, including
some Rohingya.
While
India diplomats sought ways to resolve the humanitarian crisis in the Andaman
Sea, Indian President Ram Nath Kovind was set to visit islands there during
coming days.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/indian-coast-guard-rescues-81-rohingya-refugees-adrift-at-sea-8-died-101614331929547.html
--------
US
urges India, Pakistan to hold direct talks on Kashmir; welcomes joint statement
on LoC ceasefire
Anwar
Iqbal
February
26, 2021
In
its first statement on occupied Kashmir, the Biden administration has urged
India and Pakistan to hold direct talks on the issue, and welcomed an agreement
between the two neighbours to de-escalate tensions along the Line of Control
(LoC).
Both
India and Pakistan announced on Thursday that their senior military commanders
have agreed to strictly observe all agreements, understandings and ceasefire
along the LoC and other sectors, with effect from midnight on Wednesday.
In
Washington, US State Department spokesman Ned Price mentioned this agreement in
his opening statement at the Thursday afternoon news briefing.
“We
welcome the joint statement between India and Pakistan that the two countries
have agreed to maintain strict observance of a ceasefire along the LoC starting
immediately," he said.
“We
encourage continued efforts to improve communication between the two sides and
to reduce tensions and violence along the LoC,” he added.
His
statement prompted journalists to ask: “To what extent, if any, did the United
States play a role in helping broker this new ceasefire agreement?”
Media
representatives also recalled that when US President Joe Biden was the vice
president in the Obama administration, he had a very warm relationship with
Pakistan and saw Islamabad as a vital partner in the war in Afghanistan.
The
journalists wanted to know how Biden’s previous closeness to Pakistan would
impact his policy towards the country now when he was the president.
They
also wanted to know how this would interplay with his relationship with India.
“When
it comes to the US role, we continue to support direct dialogue between India
and Pakistan on Kashmir and other issues of concern,” said the State Department
spokesman while responding to these queries.
“And
[…] we certainly welcome the arrangement that was announced” in the region, he
added.
Price
said that he and other officials of the Biden administration have been urging
the two neighboring countries to reduce their tensions since Jan 20, when Biden
took oath as the new US president.
“You’ve
heard me say from this podium and others from this administration say that we
had called on the parties to reduce tensions along the LoC by returning to that
2003 ceasefire agreement,” he said.
“We
have been very clear that we condemn the terrorists who seek to infiltrate
across the LoC.”
Asked
how this effort to “stay neutral” between India and Pakistan would affect the
Biden administration’s policies towards Islamabad, Price said: “Pakistan is an
important partner with whom we share many interests. We, as I said, have been
clear in terms of this issue.”
The
US official also referred to Pakistan’s role in the Afghan peace talks, as
Washington expects Islamabad to stay engaged with the Taliban for restoring
peace to the war-ravaged country.
“So
clearly, we will be paying close attention, and we urge the Pakistanis to play
a constructive role in all of these areas of mutual interest, including in
Afghanistan, including with Kashmir, including with our other shared
interests,” he said.
Pakistan
played a key role in arranging a peace deal between the Taliban and the Trump
administration, signed in Doha in February last year.
The
Biden administration has said that it respects the deal but needs more time to
study its features.
This
has been interpreted as indicating that Biden may not fulfill the Trump
administration’s pledge to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by May 1.
This
could further complicate Pakistan’s role as a mediator because the Taliban want
all foreign troops to leave as agreed. Any delay in the withdrawal could
further harden their attitude towards the Kabul government.
Last
week, the United Nations and the United States both condemned the Taliban for
increasing their attacks on Afghan government targets, making it clear that
this level of violence was unacceptable to the international community.
After
a virtual meeting, the US-led Nato alliance also sent a similar message to Taliban
leaders who continue to demand a complete withdrawal by May 1.
Underling
Pakistan’s role in this complex process, the State Department spokesman said:
“Obviously, Pakistan has an important role to play when it comes to Afghanistan
and what takes place across its other border.”
UN
Charter outlaws use of force, Pakistan reminds UNSC
Meanwhile,
a statement Pakistan made at an informal UN forum indicated that Islamabad had
concerns about a major Indian aggression along the LoC before their military
commanders reached an understanding to reduce tensions.
The
statement caused political observers in Washington to speculate that the US and
other major players were aware of and might have played a role in reducing
tensions between South Asia’s two nuclear-armed neighbors.
Pakistan
used the Arria Formula, an informal arrangement, to convey the alarming message
hours before senior military commanders from both countries agreed to strictly
observe all agreements and understandings.
The
Arria formula, named after a former Venezuelan ambassador to the UN, was used
in March 1992 to draw the world’s attention to the situation in Bosnia.
Pakistan’s
UN Ambassador Munir Akram began his briefing with a reminder to the UNSC
members that the purpose of the UN Charter was to outlaw the resort to war.
“Unfortunately,
today the resort to unauthorised and unilateral use of force is most visible in
[...] foreign occupation and intervention; in denial of the right of
self-determination; in the coercion of smaller and weaker States,” Ambassador
Akram said.
“Pakistan
faces cross border attacks by terrorist groups from the territory of the
neighboring state supported by a third state.”
“Pakistan,”
the envoy said, “has respected the territorial sovereignty of its neighboring
states but we have the right to self-defence against the state which is
sponsoring these terrorist attacks against Pakistan.”
Ambassador
Akram also underlined a disturbing trend of exploiting the September 11, 2001
terrorist attacks in the United States to justify aggression against others.
“It
is regrettable that after 9/11 the fight against international terrorism has
been utilised to justify the unilateral use of force and foreign intervention,”
he said.
“The
use of force in self-defence is limited to repelling an armed attack. It does
not cover ‘future’ or ‘anticipated’ attacks. The concept of ‘preventive’ or
‘anticipatory’ use of force is contrary to the UN Charter and illegal," he
said.
How
was the agreement reached?
The
outcome of the conversation between the directors general military operations
of the two countries, held after a long time, was significant, but people were
curious about knowing how the two sides reached this point.
With
no convincing explanation coming either from Islamabad or Delhi, diplomatic observers
believed that it was a result of some backchannel talks that may have been at
work. But who were involved in it?
Sources
say it had been taking place between the intelligence agencies of the two
countries with the blessings of the respective military leaderships. Almost
everyone agrees that not many people were in the loop on both sides.
In
India it was rumoured that Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval was
involved in the backchannel dialogue from his side. Some Indian media
organisations speculated that Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on
National Security Moeed Yusuf was the person on the Pakistani side.
Yusuf,
however, through a tweet denied that he was part of any backchannel talks. He
tweeted: “No such talks have taken place between me and Doval.”
In
another tweet, he said the agreement resulted through DGMOs dialogue was “done
privately and professionally through the direct channel.”
In
an audio clip that earlier in the day made rounds on social media, Yusuf could
be heard saying: “These things happen behind the scenes. A lot of effort goes
into it. Do you think this happened without effort and without pressure.”
Yusuf
had in an interview with Karan Thapar in October 2020, which was the first by a
Pakistani official with any Indian media since annexation of occupied Kashmir
by India in August 2019, said India had sent message expressing desire for
talks.
It
should also be recalled that Army Chief Gen Qamar Bajwa had in two statements
earlier this month made gesture for resolving tensions. Speaking at the PAF
Academy, he said: “It is time to extend hand of peace in all directions.”
Another
significance of the agreement is that the Pakistan government engaged with
India despite setting the conditions that it would not do so until and unless
India cancelled the annexation of occupied Kashmir and ended the human rights
violations there.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1609507/us-urges-india-pakistan-to-hold-direct-talks-on-kashmir-welcomes-joint-statement-on-loc-ceasefire
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Report:
US bombs Iraq’s anti-terror fighters on Biden’s order
26
February 2021
The
US says President Joe Biden ordered military airstrikes against facilities
belonging to anti-terror resistance groups on the Iraqi-Syrian border.
Pentagon
press secretary John F. Kirby told reporters that Biden authorized the strikes
on Thursday, allegedly destroying multiple facilities at a border control point
used by Hashd al-Sha’abi fighters, including members of Kata'ib Hezbollah and
Kata'ib Sayyid al-Shuhada groups.
Kirby
claimed that the strikes were in response to recent attacks against American
and allied personnel in Iraq.
A
rocket attack on Feb. 15 on the airport in Erbil, in northern Iraq, allegedly
killed a Filipino contractor with the US military and wounded six others.
Another
salvo hit a base hosting US forces north of Baghdad days later. At least one
contractor was hurt as a result. American officials said Thursday’s strikes
were relatively small and carefully calibrated.
In
the US attack, however, seven 500-pound bombs were reportedly dropped on a
cluster of buildings at the Syria-Iraq border.
A
US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, claimed the United States
did not want to escalate the situation into a bigger conflict.
The
official said Biden was presented with a range of options and one of the most
limited responses was allegedly chosen.
Over
the week, numerous reports had emerged about unusual movements by US troops
near the border between Iraq and Syria.
A
report on Monday said swarms of helicopter gunships and drones were flying over
al-Anbar. Iraq's al-Maloumah news agency cited an unnamed security source as
saying that the unusual overflights above al-Qa’im District extended as far as
the border with Syria.
US
troops are based across the border in al-Tanf in Syria, where militants
fighting the Syrian government are reportedly trained and armed and used for
operations in Iraq and elsewhere.
Over
the years, there have been numerous reports about the infiltration of Daesh
elements from Syria into Iraq under the protection and logistical assistance of
US troops.
Hashd
al-Sha'abi and its affiliates, which have been integrated into Iraq's regular
forces, are deployed on the Syrian border and helping the army to stem the
movement of terrorists between the two countries.
Suspicious
attacks, supposedly against US targets but often with little impact, have
escalated over the past year, especially since the Iraqi parliament passed a
law that mandated a full withdrawal of all foreign troops from the country.
Experts
say the rise in terrorist activities is apparently aimed at creating a sense of
insecurity in Iraq and providing a pretext for the US to keep its troops in the
country.
Since
late 2019, the United States has carried out strikes against anti-terror
Kata'ib Hezbollah resistance group in Iraq and Syria.
On
January 3 last year, Iran's legendary commander General Qassem Soleimani and
his Iraqi trenchmate Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were targeted along with their
companions in a terror drone strike authorized by former US president Donald
Trump near Baghdad International Airport.
On
January 8, 2020, Iran targeted the US-run Ain al-Assad air base in Iraq’s
western province of Anbar with a volley of missiles. Iran has described the
missile attack on Ain al-Assad air base as a “first slap.”
‘US
transferring Daesh terrorists to al-Tanf base’
Syria’s
official news agency SANA on Thursday reported that US military forces plan to
transport a new batch of imprisoned Daesh terrorists from the northeastern
Syrian province of Hasakah to the al-Tanf military base near the border with
Jordan.
Local
sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said US military vehicles entered
a prison at the southern flank of Hasakah, and left shortly with 10 jailed
Daesh terrorists, among them commanders, on board.
The
sources said military helicopters flew overhead as the vehicles headed to the
US base in al-Shaddadi town.
The
sources went on to say that the Daesh prisoners would undergo medical checkups
at the base, before being sent to al-Tanf base and trained to carry out attacks
against Syrian army positions, roads as well as critical infrastructures.
In
a meeting with Iraqi President Barham Salih in Baghdad earlier this month,
Iranian Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raeisi said the United States was relocating
Daesh terrorists from their former bastions in Syria and Iraq under the guise
of fighting terror.
“While
Iraq, Syria, Iran and regional countries are working together to eliminate the
remnants of Daesh, the Americans do nothing but relocate the Daesh terrorists
in the region,” Raeisi added.
The
Syrian army has the backing of Iran, Russia and Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance
movement in its battle against a host of foreign-backed militant groups, which
have been wreaking havoc on the country since 2011.
Syrian
government troops and their allies have managed to retake roughly 80 percent of
the war-ravaged Arab country’s territory from the Takfiri terrorists.
The
Syrian army is fighting to drive out the remaining terrorists, but the presence
of US and European forces and Turkish troops has slowed down its advances.
Inhuman
US-led sanctions
Separately,
Syria’s new Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Bassam Sabbagh,
said the Damascus government is providing humanitarian services to people despite
the daunting challenges of combat against terrorism, Western sanctions as well
as Israeli occupation and acts of aggression.
Sabbagh
stressed that the politicization of the Syria humanitarian crisis has increased
the sufferings of people in the war-ravaged country, and that reports presented
to the Security Council have helped some states deviate the world public
opinion from addressing the root causes of the degrading humanitarian situation
in Syria.
“Any
report or briefing submitted to the Security Council will be erroneous and
misleading as long as it turns a blind eye to the crimes being perpetrated by
terror groups in Syria,” Sabbagh said at the Council’s virtual session on
Thursday.
The
diplomat underlined that Western sanctions against his country have prevented
Syrians from acquiring their basic commodities.
“These
illegal measures represent a flagrant violation of the international law and
constitute a collective punishment of Syrians as recognized by the UN itself,”
Sabbagh highlighted.
He
condemned what he termed as Ankara’s Turkification process in northern Syria
regions, and protection of Takfiri terrorist groups to desecrate properties,
and loot crude oil fields in addition to agricultural crops.
Sabbagh
added that the United States and its allied militants exploit Syria’s natural
resources, smuggle them abroad and obstruct humanitarian access to al-Rukban
refugee camp near the border with Jordan.
He
called on Western countries to take back their nationals, who have joined the
Daesh terrorist group, and assume their legal obligations and responsibilities.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/02/26/646087/Biden-orders-airstrikes-in-eastern-Syria-targeting-anti-terror-resistance-fighters
--------
COVID-19
pandemic inequalities favor ‘terrorism’: Jordan’s King Abdullah
26
February ,2021
Jordan’s
King Abdullah II said Thursday inequalities and the economic crisis caused by
the coronavirus pandemic created fertile ground for the flourishing of
“terrorism.”
“Directing
our attention and resources to counter the pandemic has taken away from our
focus on fighting terrorism and extremism... although the battle may be won,
the war is not yet over,” Abdullah said in a speech for an online conference
held by the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think-tank.
“Rising
inequalities and emerging crises caused by the pandemic will fuel the
recruitment efforts” of jihadist groups, he added.
He
cited examples including al-Qaeda and ISIS, as well as Boko Haram in Nigeria
and al-Shabaab in Somalia.
The
conference brought together leaders and experts to discuss priorities for the
new US administration of President Joe Biden in the Middle East and North
Africa.
Abdullah
also spoke of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which abuts Jordan, and the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Occupation
and peace simply cannot coexist,” he said.
“There
is no alternative to the two-state solution,” which would see a viable
Palestinian state created alongside Israel, he added.
“Continued
unilateral steps will only kill the prospects of peace.”
https://english.alarabiya.net/coronavirus/2021/02/26/Terrorism-COVID-19-pandemic-inequalities-favor-terrorism-Jordan-s-King-Abdullah
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Germany
bans IS-glorifying Salafist Muslim group
February
25, 2021
BERLIN:
German authorities carried out raids in several locations in Berlin and
Brandenburg today after banning a Berlin Salafist Muslim group, police said.
Berlin’s
senate department for interior affairs today said it had banned a
“jihad-salafist” association Jama’atu Berlin, also known as Tauhid Berlin, and
that police had undertaken the raids, without giving further details.
German
newspaper Tagesspiegel said the group glorified “Islamic State” fighting on the
internet and called for the killing of Jews, adding that criminal proceedings
were pending against some of its members.
The
newspaper added that the group had contact with Anis Amri, a failed Tunisian
asylum seeker with Islamist links, who hijacked a truck and drove it into a
Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people in 2016.
Salafists
– strict Sunni Muslims – include peaceful private people, activists seeking the
implementation of Sharia law and militants advocating violence to establish
states they might regard as representing true Islam.
The
number of Salafists had risen in Germany to an all-time high of 12,150 in 2019,
Germany’s domestic intelligence said in its annual report last year, listing
them among “Islamist extremists”.
It
said the number of Salafists had more than tripled since 2011 and that the
Salafist scene in Germany was going through a consolidation stage, adding that
followers were keeping a low profile in public.
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/world/2021/02/25/germany-bans-is-glorifying-salafist-muslim-group/
--------
Southeast
Asia
Malaysia
consulted world’s leading Muslim ulamas on Covid-19 vaccination, says Islamic
affairs minister
Friday,
26 Feb 2021
KUALA
LUMPUR, Feb 26 — Malaysia has obtained the views and explanations of the
world's leading Muslim scholars or ulama on the fatwa of receiving the Covid-19
vaccine.
Minister
in the Prime Minister's Department (Religious Affairs) Senator Datuk Dr
Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri said he had sent letters to several scholars over the
matter, including the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, Egypt Mufti
Shawki Allam and Chairman of the Fatwa Council of the United Arab Emirates
Sheikh Abdullah Ben Bayyah.
"On
average, they issued a fatwa of referring to the experts (in health) to ensure
that this vaccine (Covid-19 vaccine) is safe and halal to use.
"One
of the conditions of the fatwa is also to refer to experts (in their
specialised fields)," he said when appearing on an Islamic affairs forum
broadcast live on TV 1 yesterday.
The
forum featured nine panelists comprising muftis, university lecturers, preachers
and physicians.
Meanwhile,
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) senior lecturer Assoc Prof Datuk Dr Mohd
Izhar Ariff Mohd Kashim said there were three important aspects to determine
whether something was halal (permissible) or haram (illegal), and this included
referring to experts in the related fields if there was no clear evidence in
the Quran and hadith.
"Besides
that, it should also be studied on whether the vaccine contains sources from
animals that are not slaughtered, or some other substances that can cause harm.
"In
this regard, studies and experts in the field of health, namely the Ministry of
Health Malaysia (MoH) have denied that it (vaccine) contains any of them,"
he said.
Meanwhile,
Perlis Mufti Datuk Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin said the Prophet Muhammad during
his time also referred some of his companions to physicians for treatment.
"Prophet
Muhammad would refer (the companions) to the physician Al-Harith ibn Kaladah,
even though he was not a Muslim," he said. — Bernama
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/02/26/malaysia-consulted-worlds-leading-muslim-ulamas-on-covid-19-vaccination-say/1952986
--------
SIS
hails ‘important’ court decision for LGBTQ community
February
26, 2021
PETALING
JAYA: A women’s group has hailed the Federal Court’s ruling that a shariah law
on unnatural sex was unconstitutional, calling it “important and significant”
for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community.
Sisters
In Islam (SIS) said this was because the community was still not accepted by
the public at large and often victimised by authorities, including those from
religious departments.
“The
persecution by religious enforcers under shariah laws has led to
discrimination, violence and injustice during raids at homes and at hotels,” it
said in a statement, citing the case of two women who were publicly flogged in
Terengganu for attempting lesbian sex.
SIS
said the community found it difficult to obtain the services of lawyers as
offences under which they were arrested for were religious in nature.
Because
of this, it said, they would choose to plead guilty to avoid shame if they were
tried under Islamic laws in court.
“The
LGBTQ community is also receiving negative comments from enforcers which
sometimes make them more susceptible to violence. This leads to stigmatisation
and discrimination,” it said.
Yesterday,
the Federal Court ruled that the Selangor state legislature was incompetent to
pass a shariah law that makes it an offence to engage in unnatural sex because
the offence was already on the Federal List.
Chief
Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who chaired a nine-member bench, said the
primary power to enact criminal laws lies with Parliament.
She
said Section 28 of the Syariah Criminal Offences (Selangor) Enactment 1995,
which allows for punishment for unnatural sex, was unconstitutional.
SIS
went on to say that this decision was not an affront to Islam or to the royal
institution.
It
said Islamic laws enacted by any government were not divine in nature. This was
because it was based on the interpretation and understanding of the Quran by
men.
“Therefore,
any amendment or review of Islamic laws does not equate to demeaning the
religion,” it said.
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2021/02/26/sis-hails-important-court-decision-for-lgbtq-community/
--------
Non-Muslim
wedding ceremonies allowed in non-EMCO areas
February
26, 2021
KUALA
LUMPUR: Marriage ceremonies for non-Muslims can be held at the National
Registration Department (JPN), places of worship and non-Muslim religious
association premises in areas under the movement control order (MCO),
conditional MCO (CMCO) and recovery MCO (RMCO) from today.
However,
marriage ceremonies in areas placed under enhanced MCO (EMCO) are still not
allowed.
JPN
said the decision was made to enable non-Muslim marriage ceremonies put off
during the MCO 2.0 period to be conducted.
In
a statement, it said the decision was made at a Minister of Defence Technical
Committee meeting chaired by Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
It
said the standard operating procedures for marriage registrations at JPN
include a maximum of 10 people, including the registrar.
For
marriage ceremonies at places of worship and religious associations, the number
of guests must not exceed 10 in MCO areas, 20 people in CMCO areas and 30 in
RMCO areas.
“However,
the SOPs are subject to the size of the premises,” it said.
JPN
also said no social events are allowed during marriage registrations and
gatherings are subject to the instructions of the National Security Council
(MKN).
Details
on the SOPs may be found on MKN’s website at www.mkn.gov.my or JPN’s website at
www.jpn.gov.my.
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2021/02/26/non-muslim-wedding-ceremonies-allowed-in-non-emco-areas/
--------
Non-Muslims
will pay heavier price for sodomy, says Federal Court
V
Anbalagan
February
25, 2021
PUTRAJAYA:
Non-Muslims will be discriminated against and are likely to get stiff penalties
for sodomy under the Penal Code while Muslims will get a lighter punishment,
the Federal Court said in explaining its decision today to rule as
unconsitutional a shariah enactment by Selangor.
Chief
Judge of Malaya Azahar Mohamed said the discrimination would be wrong as every
person must enjoy equal protection of the law under Article 8 (1) of the
Federal Constitution.
Further,
he said, that Article also provided that there should be no discrimination
against citizens on religious grounds.
Azahar
said this militated the arguments against the co-existence of Section 28 of
Syariah Criminal Offences (Selangor) Enactment 1995 and Section 377 of the
Penal Code for sodomy, each with distinct punishments.
Azahar
said this in his concurrent judgment after the bench earlier allowed a
35-year-old Muslim man’s declaration that Section 28 is unconstitutional as the
Selangor state legislature is incompetent to pass the law that makes it an
offence to engage in unnatural sex.
Chief
Justice Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, who chaired a nine-member bench, had said the
primary power to enact criminal laws lies with Parliament.
On
Aug 21, 2019, the chief sharie prosecutor filed a charge under the provision
against the man in the Selangor shariah high court.
The
man is said to have attempted to commit sexual intercourse against the order of
nature with other male persons at a house in Selangor on Nov 9, 2018.
The
man claimed trial and the proceedings were stayed pending the outcome of his
constitutional challenge in the Federal Court.
Azahar
said from the facts of the case, the petitioner was a Muslim man and attempted
to commit sexual intercourse against the order of nature with certain other
male persons, who included three non-Muslims.
“If
the shariah court were to decide that the petitioner is guilty as charged, the
maximum sentence that can be imposed is imprisonment not exceeding three years,
a fine not exceeding RM5,000 or whipping not exceeding six strokes, or any
combination thereof,” he said.
He
said Section 28 is also not applicable to the non-Muslims and the shariah court
has no jurisdiction over them and they can only be prosecuted in the civil
court.
He
said Section 377 of the Penal Code, which is applicable to them, carries a jail
term of up to 20 years and also a fine or whipping.
Males
aged below 50 can be caned up to 24 times.
Azahar
said it was hard to deny that a non-Muslim would be discriminated against and a
Muslim would benefit from a lesser sentence for a substantially similar offence
under the provision.
Others
on the bench were Court of Appeal president Rohana Yusuf, Chief Judge of Sabah
and Sarawak Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim and Federal Court judges Mohd Zawawi
Salleh, Nallini Pathmanathan, Vernon Ong Lam Kiat, Zabariah Mohd Yusof and
Hasnah Mohammed Hashim.
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2021/02/25/non-muslims-will-pay-heavier-price-for-sodomy-says-federal-court/
--------
After
landmark ruling on Selangor ‘unnatural sex’ offence, lawyers say now clear
Parliament has primacy for criminal law
25
Feb 2021
BY
IDA LIM
KUALA
LUMPUR, Feb 25 — The Federal Court has today made it clear that Parliament has
primacy when it comes to making laws on criminal offences in Malaysia, lawyers
representing a Malaysian Muslim man in the case said.
In
a joint statement by lawyers Datuk Malik Imtiaz Sarwar and Surendra Ananth,
they noted that the Federal Court’s nine-judge panel chaired by Chief Justice
Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat had unanimously ruled in favour of their client by
declaring Section 28 of the Shariah Criminal Offences (Selangor) Enactment 1995
as void for being unconstitutional.
Section
28 makes it a Shariah offence for “any person” performing “sexual intercourse
against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal”, with the punishment
being a maximum fine of RM5,000 or a maximum three-year jail term or a maximum
whipping of six strokes or any combination.
The
order sought by the man and granted by the Federal Court today is for a
declaration that Section 28 is invalid on the grounds that it makes provision
with respect to a matter which the Selangor state legislature has no power to
make laws on and is therefore null and void.
In
this case, a key issue was whether Section 28 was invalid as the Selangor state
legislature has no powers to make laws on a matter that falls under the federal
government’s powers via Parliament to make laws on instead.
Both
Imtiaz and Surendra noted that the Federal Court’s decision today was that the
power of state legislatures to make laws on offences against the precepts of
Islam is limited to matters that do not fall under Parliament’s powers, and
that this was even if Parliament had yet to make such laws.
“The
court concluded that under the Constitution, it is Parliament that has primacy
over criminal law.
“Though
the State Legislative Assemblies can enact offences against the precepts of
Islam, that legislative power does not extend to matters that Parliament can
make criminal law over under the Federal List.
“This
serves to limit the power of the State Legislative Assembly to enact offences
against the precepts of Islam. To be clear, that preclusion applies as long as
Parliament can make criminal law on the subject and is not confined to where
Parliament has made law,” the lawyers explained.
The
lawyers were referring to the Federal Constitution’s Ninth Schedule’s List I
and List II or the Federal List and State List, which separately list what the
federal government via Parliament and state governments via state legislative
assemblies can make laws on.
The
State List states that state legislative assemblies can make laws on Islamic
law, including the “creation and punishment of offences by persons professing
the religion of Islam against precepts of that religion, except in regard to
matters included in the Federal List”.
The
phrase “except in regard to matters included in the Federal List” in the
Federal Constitution has been described as a “preclusion clause” in this court
case, which in other words acts to exclude state legislatures from making state
laws on matters that fall under Parliament’s jurisdiction in the Federal List.
“In
this way, the court has clarified that the State Legislative Assembly can only
enact purely religious offences. Such offences fall within the jurisdiction of
the Shariah courts.
“In
this way, the court has addressed the misconception that there are, in effect,
two parallel systems of criminal law of equal standing.
“The
court has clarified that there is one system of general criminal law,
applicable to all persons, and another system of purely religious law in which
offences can only relate to matters of religion. This will ensure that the law
is applied without discrimination,” the two lawyers further said when
explaining the separate grounds of judgment by Chief Justice Tengku Maimun and
Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Azahar Mohamed.
Among
other things, it was noted by the Federal Court that Parliament had already
made laws on the same offence of unnatural sex in Section 28, via provisions
such as Sections 377 and Section 377A of the Penal Code which is a federal law.
Among
other things, Justice Azahar did not agree that federal and state laws on
unnatural sex could co-exist, noting that this was because of the Federal
Constitution’s Article 8 which provides for equal protection of the law and
non-discrimination against Malaysians.
Justice
Azahar had pointed out that Section 28 of the Selangor state law which only
applies to Muslims is punishable by a maximum sentence of jail up to three
years, fine up to RM5,000, or whipping up to six strokes or any combination,
while the Penal Code’s Section 377A is punishable with a maximum jail term of up
to 20 years and also fine or whipping.
With
Article 8 of the Federal Constitution providing for all persons to be equal
before the law and no discrimination against citizens only on grounds such as
religion, the judge had said it would be hard to deny that a non-Muslim would
be discriminated in such a situation as a Muslim would have the benefit of a
lesser sentence for a substantially similar offence.
Justice
Azahar said this was among the reasons why he concluded that Section 28 is
invalid as it was ultra vires or went beyond the Federal Constitution, noting
that the state legislature had no power to make law via Section 28 on the
unnatural sex offence and that only Parliament could enact such a law.
A
simplified version of what the Federal Court decided today and why it arrived
at such a decision can be read here. Both the grounds of judgment by Justice
Tengku Maimun and Justice Azahar were fully agreed to by all the other judges
on the Federal Court’s nine-member panel.
Other
lawyers who represented the Muslim man were Honey Tan Lay Ean and Tay Kit Hoo.
The name of the Muslim man is being withheld on the request of his lawyers, who
had previously highlighted the risks and danger posed if he was to be named
publicly.
Later
when asked by Malay Mail on what would happen to the Shariah trial against the
Muslim man following the Federal Court’s decision today, Surendra said that the
Shariah charge under Section 28 should be dropped by the prosecution.
“Prosecution
should now withdraw the charge. As for the judicial review in High Court, we
will wait on the status of the charge in the Shariah court,” he said.
In
August 2019, the Malaysian Muslim man was charged in the Selangor Shariah High
Court under Section 28 of the 1995 Selangor state law read together with
Section 52 for attempted offences, where he was alleged to have in November
2018 in a house in Bandar Baru Bangi attempted to commit sexual intercourse
against the order of nature with other men. Justice Azahar today noted that the
charge sheet had said the other men included three non-Muslims.
Surendra
confirmed today that both the Shariah trial and judicial review proceedings
have been put on hold while waiting for the Federal Court decision today.
Surendra
confirmed that the Shariah trial had yet to start and with only the Shariah
charge read out with a plea of not guilty recorded so far.
After
the Muslim man was charged with and pleaded not guilty and claimed trial in
August 2019 in the Shariah court on the offence of unnatural sex under Section
28, he had filed two separate constitutional challenges in the civil courts to
challenge the validity of the Section 28 provision that was used to charge him.
The
first challenge filed on November 20, 2019 at the High Court was for leave for
judicial review against the Selangor chief Shariah prosecutor and the Selangor
government, with several court orders sought including declarations that
Section 28 is invalid for going against the Federal Constitution.
As
part of the judicial review application, the man had also sought a court order
to prohibit the continuing of Shariah proceedings against him; and court orders
to quash the decision to charge him in the Shariah court and to quash the
Shariah trial against him.
The
High Court had in January 2020 granted leave or permission for the judicial
review proceeding to be heard, but the High Court has not heard the actual
judicial review application yet due to the need to wait for the Federal Court
decision.
As
for the second challenge which was filed on November 28, 2019 by the Muslim
man, he had applied directly to the Federal Court to refer the issue of Section
28’s constitutional validity for the country’s highest court to decide.
The
application was made via Article 4(4) of the Federal Constitution, where
constitutional challenges against the validity of any laws — on the basis that
such laws were made by Parliament or by state legislatures when they had no
power to do so or when it does not fall under their respective jurisdictions —
can be brought directly to the Federal Court and requires a Federal Court
judge’s leave to be heard.
The
Federal Court granted leave on May 14, 2020 for the constitutional challenge to
be heard, and on December 14, 2020 heard the case, which resulted in today’s
decision.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/02/25/after-landmark-ruling-on-selangor-unnatural-sex-offence-lawyers-say-now-cle/1952754
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India
Jharkhand:
Married Muslim man held for ‘trying to lure’ Hindu woman
Feb
26, 2021
DUMKA:
Police have arrested a married Muslim man here for allegedly trying to marry a
19-year-old Hindu girl. Following the incident, the local wing of RSS said it
was a case of "love jihad" and demanded that the government frames a
law against it.
The
accused is identified as Tipu Sultan (30) of Dhawan Rampur villager under
Palajori police station of Deoghar district. He was married and has two
children. Sultan, however, faked his identity as one Satish Rai from Dhanbad
and began wooing the girl from Patsimla village under Masanjor police station of
Dumka district six months ago after meeting her at a local mall.
Masanjor
police station officer-in-charge Vijay Kumar Singh said, “The accused was
arrested on Wednesday night. He not only faked his identity but also claimed
that he owns a petrol pump and the dealership of a popular milk brand to woo
the girl, who is from a poor background. They exchanged mobile numbers on the
first day of their meeting and developed a relationship.”
Singh
further said Sultan had a physical relationship with the girl three months ago
and came to her village on Wednesday to marry her.
He
added, “A few alert villagers doubted his credentials and demanded to see his
Aadhaar card, which he cannot produce. The villagers then alerted us leading to
Sultan’s arrest. We have lodged a case under Section 417 (cheating) and Section
376 (rape) of the IPC.”
Meanwhile,
Vikram Pandey, a senior functionary of the RSS said, “The arrest of Tipu Sultan
is testimony to the urgency to implement a stringent law against the practice
of attempts to convert Hindu girls to Islam through love jihad.”
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ranchi/married-muslim-man-held-for-trying-to-lure-hindu-woman/articleshow/81215019.cms
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Love
jihad law in upcoming House session: Rupani at Godhra rally
February
26, 2021
The
Gujarat government will bring in a law on “love jihad” in the forthcoming
Assembly session, Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said Thursday at a rally in
Godhra. “It will not be tolerated now that a Hindu girl is being abducted by
anybody. By the law on love jihad, the activity of religious conversion of
girls by luring them will be checked,” Rupani said while listing his
government’s initiatives for maintenance of law and order.
The
remarks come after Rupani’s deputy Nitin Patel made similar comments at another
rally in Ahmedabad.
At
the Godhra rally, Rupani also targeted the Congress, saying that the stands
exposed as even the Muslims have voted against it—referring to the Ahmedabad
Municipal Corporation elections where the All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul
Muslimeen won seven seats.
“Muslims
too have understood Congress. And in these elections, eight seats (sic) have
been won by (Asaduddin) Owaisi’s party in Ahmedabad. Even Muslims now want to
get free from Congress because (of its) vote bank politics. (It) saw people as
votes and not as human beings,” the Chief Minister said.
Accusing
the Congress of not serving the people during the pandemic, Rupani said a fate
similar to the civic poll defeat awaited the party in the elections to the
panchayats and nagarpalikas later this month.
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/love-jihad-law-in-upcoming-house-session-rupani-at-godhra-rally-7205112/
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UP
court reserves order on plea for status quo in Shahi Idgah mosque premises
25th
February 2021
MATHURA:
A Mathura court has reserved its order on a plea that accuses the Shahi Idgah
Masjid authorities of trying to remove the mosque's stone slabs and other
structural material bearing Hindu religious inscriptions.
Senior
Civil Judge Neha Banaudia reserved her order on the application seeking the
court's directive for a status quo in the mosque premises before its
examination by the court commissioner, said Mathura district government counsel
Sanjai Ajai Gaur on Thursday.
The
application was filed on Wednesday by advocate Mahendra Pratap Singh and four
others and had accused the mosque management committee and Sunni Waqf Board
authorities of trying to remove stone slabs and other structural materials of
the mosque on Tuesday.
They
had earlier moved the court seeking the appointment of a court commissioner to
examine the mosque premises for the alleged presence of Hindu religion
inscriptions on slabs and other structural material used to build the mosque
close to the Katra Keshav Dev temple in Mathura.
The
application for the appointment of a court commissioner is slated for hearing
on March 9.
Advocate
Singh along with his co-applicants had earlier moved the court for shifting the
17th-century mosque located near the temple which devotees believe to be the birthplace
of Lord Krishna.
https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2021/feb/25/up-court-reserves-order-on-plea-for-status-quo-in-shahi-idgah-mosque-premises-2268948.html
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Kashmir:
Mainstream parties, Hurriyat welcome Indo-Pak ceasefire
by
Bashaarat Masood
February
26, 2021
Mainstream
leaders in Kashmir have welcomed the joint statement by India and Pakistan
announcing a ceasefire on the Line of Control.
“It
is a welcome development that can end the death and destruction at the
borders,” PDP chief and former CM Mehbooba Mufti told The Indian Express.
Mufti
has been advocating dialogue between India and Pakistan for resolution of the
Kashmir issue. “Ultimately, dialogue and reconciliation is the only way forward
for peaceful resolution of issues between the two neighbours.”
National
Conference president, MP and former CM Farooq Abdullah, too, welcomed the
development, saying it will “go a long way towards sustainable peace”.
“I
hope the agreement is followed in letter and spirit. The development, I sincerely
believe, will allow people living alongside LoC and International Border to go
about their normal lives with minimal disruption and risk,” he said. “The
agreement, I believe, if followed by the book, will help advance the
collaboration between the two neighbouring countries.”
Abdullah
said he expects some forward movement in the dialogue process that would help
the two countries resolve all issues. “I hope the development doesn’t go down
as short-lived flutter but increases the possibility of some forward
advancement towards the resolution of all impending issues lingering between
the two neighbouring nations.”
Responding
to the development, Peoples Conference president Sajad Lone tweeted that he was
not being “negative”, adding, “They can play friend and enemies whenever they
want. Wish we Kashmiris learn our lessons. And we won’t learn.”
Hurriyat
Conference too has welcomed the announcement and called it a “move in the right
direction”. “Just as the joint statement correctly points out that in the interest
of achieving mutually beneficial and sustainable peace along the borders, the
two DGsMO agreed to address each other’s core issues and concerns which have
propensity to disturb the peace and lead to violence, likewise, in the interest
of mutually beneficial and sustainable peace in the entire region, Governments
of India and Pakistan need to address the core concern of J&K in keeping
with the aspirations of its people , which is the cause of conflict and
violence in the region,” the Hurriyat, led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, said in a
statement. “The talks are the best means to address this concern and we have
always advocated it.”
https://indianexpress.com/article/india/kashmir-mainstream-parties-hurriyat-welcome-indo-pak-ceasefire-7205182/
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Would
be compelled to take pre-emptive strike when confronted by imminent terror
attack: India at UN
FEB
25, 2021
India
told a UN meeting that a country would be compelled to undertake a “pre-emptive
strike” when confronted by an "imminent armed attack” from a non-state
actor operating in a third state, as it highlighted several proxy cross-border
terror attacks, including one in Pulwama, perpetrated against it from its
neighbourhood, a clear reference to Pakistan.
India’s
Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador K Nagaraj Naidu said at an
Arria Formula meeting organised by Mexico that non-state actors such as
terrorist groups often attack states from remote locations within other host
states, using the sovereignty of that host state as a “smokescreen”.
On
this, a growing number of states believe that the use of force in self-defence
against a non-state actor operating in the territory of another host state can
be undertaken if the “non-state actor has repeatedly undertaken armed attacks
against the State; the host state is unwilling to address the threat posed by
the non-state actor; the host state is actively supporting and sponsoring the
attack by the non-state actor,” he said.
“In
other words, a state would be compelled to undertake a pre-emptive strike when
it is confronted by an imminent armed attack from a non-state actor operating
in a third state," he said on Wednesday.
"This
state of affairs exonerates the affected state from the duty to respect,
vis-a-vis the aggressor, the general obligation to refrain from the use of
force,” Naidu said at the Arria Formula meeting.
The
Arria Formula meetings are informal meetings of the Security Council, on
‘Upholding the collective security system of the UN Charter: the use of force
in international law, non-state actors and legitimate self-defence’.
He
noted that Security Council resolutions 1368 (2001) and 1373 (2001) have
formally endorsed the view that self-defence is available to avert terrorist
attacks such as in the case of the 9/11 attacks.
On
February 26, 2019, less than two weeks after 40 police personnel were killed in
Pulwama in Jammu and Kashmir in a terror attack perpetrated by Pakistan-based
Jaish-e-Mohammed on February 14, India had conducted a pinpoint and swift
airstrike in a pre-dawn operation, described as "non-military" and
"preemptive", against the terror group’s biggest training camp in
Pakistan’s Balakot.
Then
Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale had said at the time that “credible
intelligence was received that JeM was attempting another suicide terror attack
in various parts of the country, and the fidayeen jihadis were being trained
for this purpose. In the face of imminent danger, a preemptive strike became
absolutely necessary.”
Naidu
told the informal meeting that India has been subject to cross-border terrorist
attacks perpetrated by non-state actors with the active complicity of “another
host state”, a clear reference to Pakistan.
He
stressed that exercising self-defence is a nation’s primary right when a
situation demands “immediate and proportionate action” and applies also to
attacks by non-state actors.
“Some
states are resorting to proxy war by supporting non-state actors such as
terrorist groups to evade international censure. Such support to non-state
actors has ranged from providing and equipping the terrorist groups with
training, financing, intelligence and weapons to logistics and recruitment
facilitation,” he said.
India
for decades has been subject to such proxy cross-border and relentless
state-supported terrorist attacks from its neighbourhood, he said.
"Whether
it is was the 1993 Mumbai bombings, or the random and indiscriminate firings of
26/11 which witnessed the launch of the phenomenon of lone-wolves or more
recently, the cowardly attacks in Pathankot and Pulwama, the world has been
witness to the fact that India has repeatedly been targeted by such non-state
actors with the active complicity of another host State,” Naidu said.
Naidu
told the meeting that exercising self-defence is a primary right of States to
be exercised when the situation is imminent and “demands necessary, immediate,
and proportionate action” and that customary international law has long
recognised the principles governing the use of force in self-defence.
He
noted that Article 51 of the UN Charter is not confined to “self-defence” in
response to attacks by states only.
"The
right of self-defence applies also to attacks by non-state actors. In fact, the
source of the attack, whether a state or a non-state actor, is irrelevant to
the existence of the right of self-defence.”
Naidu
stressed that India believes that instances where states have exercised the
right of self-defense to attack non-state actors located in other states must
be consistent with Article 2(4) of the UN Charter.
But
“preemptive actions taken to fight the menace of terrorism, even without the
consent of the state hosting the non-state actors, meets this criterion because
such actions are not of reprisal since their prime motive is for protecting the
affected states’ national integrity and sovereignty,” he said.
Article
2(4) of the UN Charter states that “all Members shall refrain in their
international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial
integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner
inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”
Noting
that Article 2(4) of the UN Charter requires that states refrain from the use
of force, he said the drafting history of Article 51 of the UN Charter and the
relevant San Francisco Conference Report of June 1945 that considered Article
2(4) of the UN Charter mentions that “the use of arms in legitimate
self-defence remains admitted and unimpaired.”
He
added that Article 51 also explicitly acknowledges the pre-existing customary
right of self-defence, as recognised by the International Court of Justice and
the UN Security Council by stating that “nothing in the present Charter shall
impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence.”
https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/would-be-compelled-to-take-pre-emptive-strike-when-confronted-by-imminent-attack-from-non-state-actor-operating-in-third-state-india-at-un-101614245521430.html
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Mamata
govt forms 8-member board for Rajbanshi Muslims
Avijit
Sinha, Main Uddin Chisti
26.02.21
The
Mamata Banerjee government has constituted a development board for Nasya
Sheikhs or Rajbanshi Muslims with eight members.
The
state backward classes’ welfare department constituted the West Bengal Nasya
Sheikh Development Board with its headquarters in Cooch Behar through a
notification on February 22.
The
notification says the district magistrate of Cooch Behar will be the chairman
of the board that has prominent faces of the community from different districts
of north Bengal as the members. “It is a major development for us. We had been
raising the demand for years and it is good that the state government has
finally created the board that will carry out works for socio-economic
development of the community,” said Bazlay Rehman, the chairman of Kamtapuri
Bhasa Academy and a member of the board.
In
the past few months, Nasya Sheikhs had vehemently raised the demand for the
board.
“In
fact, a section of them had made it clear that if the board was not announced
ahead of the Assembly elections, they would rethink about supporting the
Trinamul Congress. The new board can help Trinamul keep political forces like
the AIMIM and Indian Secular Front at bay,” said an observer.
Around
35 lakh Nasya Sheikhs reside in the north Bengal districts of Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri,
North Dinajpur, Malda, Alipurduar and Darjeeling.
“As
a whole, the support of Rajbanshis determines the fate of candidates in almost
half of the 54 Assembly seats in the region,” the observer said.
https://www.telegraphindia.com/west-bengal/mamata-banerjee-government-constitutes-development-board-for-rajbanshi-muslims/cid/1807823
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AMU
student goes missing, cops trace location to Delhi
FEB
26, 2021
A
final year Bachelor of Arts (BA) student from the department of foreign
languages at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) went missing on Tuesday afternoon,
said university officials. A missing case was registered at Civil Lines police
station following which, a police team was sent to Delhi to look for the
missing student.
“Ashraf
Ali, 22, is from a village in Araria district of Bihar and is a final year
student of Bachelor of Arts (BA) course. He was residing here in SS Hall South
at Aligarh Muslim University,” said Prof Mohd Waseem Ali, proctor, AMU.
“He
went missing since Tuesday around 3pm and was last seen by his colleagues and
friends in Aligarh’s Shamshad Market but did not return to his room. His mobile
was switched off since then. It was put on for merely 50 seconds on Tuesday and
Wednesday night,” said the proctor.
“Family
members of the student have been informed. It has been a matter of concern and
with every passing day, the matter is becoming complicated,” said the proctor.
“It
has come to our knowledge that the missing student was moved by road to Delhi,”
said Kuldeep Singh Gunawat, superintendent of police (SP), Aligarh.
“We
are in contact with the family members and have interacted with his friends in
Aligarh. A police team has gone to Delhi to trace the student,” he added.
https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/lucknow-news/amu-student-goes-missing-cops-trace-location-to-delhi-101614319505444.html
--------
Riots,
markaz wounds still raw, Chauhan Banger gets ready to vote in civic bypolls
By
Risha Chitlangia
FEB
26, 2021
Two-hundred
metres away from the Jafrabad Metro station, where stone pelting between the
pro- and anti-CAA later snowballed into riots in northeast Delhi, campaigning
for the municipal bypoll in the Chauhan Banger (ward no. 41E) is on in full
swing.
While
the candidates of three main political parties are focusing on local issues
such as mending broken roads, building a new library, addressing parking
problem, improving sanitation service, riots and the crackdown on the members
of the Tablighi Jamaat for attending a congregation at the Nizamuddin Markaz in
violation of the rules imposed in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic also find
frequent mention in the conversations.
Chauhan
Banger with 40,000 voters is one of the five municipal wards where bypolls are
scheduled on February 28. The bypoll was necessitated in the ward, as the
sitting AAP councillor, Abdul Rehman, won the assembly election from Seelampur
last year. Most of the people here are Muslims employed in household industries
and run small mechanical workshops.
Although
no violence was reported during the February riots from Chauhan Banger, locals
recall the horror and fear which had gripped the area for days. Imamuddin Khan.
41, a resident of the ward, said, “We all were scared and didn’t step out for
two days. I have been living here for nearly three decades, but I never saw
such tension among people in the area.”
Some
residents feel that the riots may have a bearing on the election outcome.
Maulana Mohd. Daud Amini (58), rector of Madrasa Babul Uloom in Jafrabad,
vividly remembers the events preceding the violence. Amini said, “There was an
anti-CAA protest near this [Jafrabad] Metro station. Though no violence was
reported, but there was an atmosphere of fear as police took a few young men
for questioning.”
He
alleged that Muslims also had to bear of the government’s action against the
congregation at the Nizamuddin Markaz. Over 2,300 people were evacuated from
the Markaz and taken to quarantine centres. Amini said, “The way the Markaz
issue was handled, the community felt targeted. It is the poor people who bore the
brunt of the incident. The fruits and vegetable vendors from the community
found it difficult to earn their livelihood during the lockdown. The community
is hurt as it was vilified. Though it has been a year, the two incidents are
still fresh in minds of people.”
AAP
candidate Mohd Ishraq Khan, a former MLA from Seelampur, said, “There is anger
in the community. People talk about it when we meet them.”
Khan
is pitted against Zubair Ahmad, son of Congress veteran and five-time MLA from
Seelampur, Mateen Ahmed, and BJP’s Mohd Nazir Ansari, a local party worker who
has been actively working with the minority wing of the party for over two
decades.
Zubair
said the Muslim community was angry over the way riots and the Markaz incident
were handled. “While we are focusing only on development issues in our
campaign, these issues do come up. The area needs sanitation services. The
situation of essential services in the area has gone from bad to worse,” said
Zubair, whose main promises include setting up a library and improving
sanitation services in the area.
Ishraq
Khan dismissed the allegations of the government “mishandling the riots and
Markaz” issues. “Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal visited the riot-affected
areas and the government made all efforts to provide immediate relief to the
victims. The Congress has no relevant issue to talk about.”
Hitting
out at Zubair, Khan said, “His father represented the Seelampur constituency
for over two decades, but he didn’t do anything. It is only after the AAP came
to power that new schools and medical facilities were constructed here.”
The
AAP is going all out to retain the ward, which it won in 2017. Environment
minister Gopal Rai, who is also AAP’s Delhi unit convener, recently campaigned
in the area. The new state Congress team has been working hard to revive the
party and hoping for a favourable outcome. The BJP, which has never won any
municipal election from this ward, is banking on the central government schemes
such as PM-UDAY for giving ownership rights to residents of unauthorised
colonies to garner support. Mohd Nazir Ansari said, “Our focus is just on
development. The area has been ruled by Congress and AAP in the past but look
at the conditions here. The Centre has announced several schemes for housing, better
employment, ease of doing business, etc. We are telling people about it.”
https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/delhi-news/riots-wounds-still-raw-chauhan-banger-gets-ready-for-bypolls-101614299235957.html
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Pakistan
FATF
grey-listing cost Pakistan $38 billion: Report
Feb
26, 2021
NEW
DELHI: Cash-strapped Pakistan has suffered a massive loss of $38 billion due to
its grey-listing by the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF), a
research paper has found.
The
findings of the paper ‘Bearing the cost of global politics - the impact of FATF
grey-listing on Pakistan’s economy’ comes amid FATF's recent decision to keep
Pakistan on its grey list following a review of its action plan items to curb
terror financing.
The
global body against terror financing on Thursday said that Pakistan will
continue to remain on increased monitoring list as there are "serious
deficiencies" in checking terror financing and the country lacks an
effective system to deal with it.
The
research paper, published by Islamabad-based think-tank Tabadlab, said that
Pakistan's frequent grey-listing by FATF from 2008 to 2019 may have resulted in
a cumulative GDP loss of $38 billion.
"A
large proportion of this decline in GDP can be attributed to the reduction in
household and government consumption expenditures, with real consumption in
actual Pakistan $22 billion lower, relative to its counterfactual
counterpart," the paper said.
It
added that the greylisting has also led to lower levels of both exports and
inward FDI.
The
paper said that FATF sanctioning between 2012 and 2015 cost Pakistan
approximately $13.43 billion.
It
said that even though Pakistan saw itself out of the FATF’s crosshair in June
2015, it took a while for GDP to recover with an estimated loss of $1.54
billion in 2016.
"This
implies that FATF sanctioning has short to medium run implications for the
economy," it said.
The
study further pointed out how Pakistan's removal from the grey list even led to
the revival of its economy, which was evident from an increase in the level of
GDP in 2017 and 2018.
It
said that the removal from grey list in 2015 may have led to GDP gains in both
2017 and 2018. The paper observed that Pakistan saw its GDP rise marginally at
$150 million in 2018, with the re-entry into the grey list wiping off most of
the gains from the first half of the year.
The
declining trend then continued in 2019, with the country losing a staggering
$10.31 billion in 2019, the paper showed.
"The
overall findings suggest that real GDP in Pakistan witnessed a cumulative
decline of about $38 billion relative to synthetic Pakistan over 12 years
(2008-2019) as a result of FATF’s grey-listing," the paper said.
Pakistan
and FATF
Pakistan
was placed on the "grey list" by the FATF in June, 2018 and was given
a plan of action to be completed by October, 2019. Since then the country
continues to be on that list due to its failure to comply with the FATF
mandates.
Countries
that are considered safe haven for supporting terror funding and money
laundering are put in the FATF grey list. This inclusion serves as a warning to
the country that it may enter the blacklist.
The
FATF is an inter-governmental body established in 1989 to combat
money-laundering, terror-financing and other related threats to the integrity
of the international financial system.
It
currently has 39 members, including two regional organisations — the European
Commission and the Gulf Cooperation Council.
India
is a member of the FATF consultations and its Asia Pacific Group.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/fatf-grey-listing-cost-pakistan-38-billion-report/articleshow/81223475.cms
--------
Pakistani
lawmaker lambasted for Hindu goddess tweet
Feb
26, 2021
ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan’s televangelist-turned-politician Aamir Liquat Hussain has been forced
to apologise for his controversial act of using the image of Hindu deity to
mock Maryam Nawaz, the vice-president of opposition Pakistan Muslim
League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.
Hussain
has been a member of the national assembly of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf
(PTI) from Karachi. On Tuesday, he had shared a screenshot of a news channel
that quoted Maryam Nawaz, ex-PM Nawaz Sharif’s daughter, as saying, “They
(government) will now see a second version of me.”
Husain
posted the quote on Twitter with the image of a Hindu deity, likening it to
Maryam’s “dusra roop (second version)”.
The
move drew ire from a large number of politicians and netizens, condemning
Hussain’s post, which he deleted on Wednesday evening. Later on that night, he
also tendered an apology, saying the “sentiments of the Hindu community were
hurt”. Hussain said he had not intended the tweet as a disrespect and had
deleted the same. “I respect all faiths, this is what my religion has taught
me,” he added.
Condemning
Husain’s tweet, PTI’s Hindu MNA from Tharparkar in Sindh province, Dr Ramesh
Kumar Vankwani, who is also the chief of the Pakistan Hindu Council, called it
a “shameful act”.
“Strongly
condemn this shameful act by someone who claims to be a religious scholar also
but doesn’t know how to respect other religions. Delete this tweet immediately
otherwise we reserve the right to demand strict action under the Blasphemy Act
and protest across the country,” Vankwani posted on Twitter. He said Hussain’s
post had not only hurt the sentiments of Hindus across the country but also
created resentment among supporters of PTI.
Another
PTI MNA from Umerkot in Sindh, Lal Chand Malhi, tweeted: “Strongly condemn the
blasphemous act of Aamir Liaquat and appeal PM Imran Khan to take notice of
this immoral act. No religion including Islam permits him to do such illogical
acts.” He added that the tweet, in fact, exposed Husain’s “second version”.
Surendar
Valasi, a provincial lawmaker of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) from Tharparkar,
issued a statement, alleging that PTI lawmakers like Husain had “lost their
mental balance” and were using insulting language against their political
rivals and the “weaker” communities of the country. He warned of a protest if
an unconditional apology was not tendered by the “political clowns”.
Rights
activist Kapil Dev requested Prime Minister Imran to take strong notice of the
act by a lawmaker from his party. He said Husain had used a Hindu deity for
political point-scoring. “Hindus are abused and their religious sentiments are
hurt even by those sitting in the parliaments,” he said.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/pakistani-lawmaker-lambasted-for-hindu-goddess-tweet/articleshow/81217116.cms
--------
Fazl
promises ‘big’ opposition surprise
February
26, 2021
PESHAWAR:
Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has claimed that the
opposition parties will give the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf a big surprise
in the upcoming Senate elections and secure the maximum seats.
“The
opposition will give a big surprise and the PDM candidates will succeed in the
Senate polls,” he told reporters here on Thursday.
Mr
Fazl said the PDM’s steering committee met to develop consensus on the
distribution of tickets and support each other’s candidates in the Senate
elections.
He
said the PDM would field joint candidates in the Senate polls.
The
JUI-F chief, who is also the chairman of the 10-party alliance, said there was
a possibility of converting the PDM into an electoral alliance for the next
general elections.
He
said the opposition parties, including JUI-F, didn’t accept the results of the
by-elections in NA-45 (Kurram-I) and NA-75 (Daska) and demanded the Election
Commission of Pakistan hold re-polling in both constituencies.
Mr
Fazl said the by-poll results had been manipulated in Kurram and Daska areas
and the Election Commission should take a realistic stand on it.
The
JUI-F chief said members of the ECP staff were either too helpless to stop
election rigging in those two constituencies or involved in it and therefore,
the JUI-F didn’t accept the results.
He
said the ECP had unearthed fraud and found 600 bogus applications for postal
ballots in NA-45 but despite that, it allowed the ruling PTI’s candidate to
contest the election.
Mr
Fazl said the PTI nominee was declared winner in the by-election and the JUI-F
had already approached the commission against him.
PTI
candidate Fakhar Zaman won by-polls in Kurram, while JUI-F nominee Malik Jamil
Chamkani was declared the runner-up.
The
ECP has received around 600 applications for postal ballots from the police
department for the NA-45 by-election. The inquiry found them all to be bogus
with two applicants being dead, five abroad, several terminated and retired
officials, and some, who quit voluntarily.
During
the random checking of these applications, it was found that all applications
had been forwarded by the deputy superintendent of police having a single
return address of superintendent of police (investigation), Sadda.
Replying
to question about the Supreme Court hearing into the presidential reference, Mr
Fazl argued that parliament’s role began only if the Constitution was silent on
any matter.
He
said the judiciary could only interpret an article of the Constitution, so the
apex court shouldn’t become party to the presidential reference.
When
asked about the statement of PDM candidate Yusuf Raza Gilani about the
neutrality of security establishment in the Senate elections, the JUI-F chief
cautiously said: “If a candidate (Yusuf Raza Gilani) says that he has no
evidence of the interference of the establishment, then we should not criticise
any institution for no reason.”
https://www.dawn.com/news/1609407/fazl-promises-big-opposition-surprise
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PM
Imran welcomes Sri Lankan govt's decision allowing Muslims to bury Covid-19
victims
February
26, 2021
Prime
Minister Imran Khan on Friday welcomed the Sri Lankan government's decision to
allow the burial of Covid-19 victims, days after the premier's visit to
Colombo.
On
February 10, Prime Minister Imran had lauded his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda
Rajapaksa's announcement that burials would be allowed. A day later, however,
Rajapaksa backtracked and said there would be no change in the cremation-only
policy.
The
ban had sparked protests by Muslims who bury their dead in accordance with
Islamic customs. The Muslim community in Sri Lanka had held a protest prior to
Prime Minister Imran's visit, where they carried a mock janazah or coffin.
“Respect
Prime Minister's statement and allow burials,” one banner at the protest read.
On
February 25, a day after Prime Minister Imran concluded his two-day official
visit to Colombo, the Sri Lankan government issued a notification saying that
the order has been amended to allow both burial and cremation of people who
died due to Covid.
"I
thank the Sri Lankan leadership & welcome the Sri Lankan govt's official
notification allowing the burial option for those dying of Covid 19," PM
Imran said in a tweet posted today.
Foreign
Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi too said that Pakistan was "grateful"
to the leadership of Sri Lanka for allowing the burial of Covid-19 victims.
"Indeed
it is these very principles of mutual understanding, respect and humanity that
bring relationships to thrive and prosper," he tweeted.
Prime
minister's aide Zulfi Bukhari shared pictures of a copy of the gazette
notification issued by the Sri Lankan government and said: "Appreciate Sri
Lankan govt’s official gazette notification allowing burial of #COVID19
deceased in #SriLanka within few hours of PM @ImranKhanPTI's visit. It is every
Muslim’s final right to be buried as was requested by #PMIK."
Ban
on burials
The
Sri Lankan government had imposed a ban on burials in April amid concerns —
which experts say are baseless — by influential Buddhist monks that burying
bodies could contaminate groundwater and spread the virus.
The
World Health Organisation has said there is no such risk, recommending both
burial and cremation of virus victims.
Traditionally,
Muslims bury their dead facing Makkah. Sri Lanka's majority Buddhists, who are
strong backers of the current government, are typically cremated, as are
Hindus.
In
December, the Sri Lankan authorities ordered the forced cremation of at least
19 Muslim Covid-19 victims, including a baby, after their families refused to
claim their bodies from a hospital morgue.
This
stoked dismay and anger among the Muslim community, moderates and abroad, with
the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation repeatedly expressing
concern.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1609521/pm-imran-welcomes-sri-lankan-govts-decision-allowing-muslims-to-bury-covid-19-victims
--------
Mideast
Iran:
US Assassination of General Soleimani Violation of Int'l Law
2021-February-25
Takht
Ravanchi made the remarks, addressing the UN Security Council Open Arria Formula
Meeting on right to self-defense in New York on Wednesday.
He
also warned of a growing tendency among some countries to resort to threats or
use of force under the pretext of exercising their right to self-defense,
referring to the case of the assassination by the US of General Soleimani as a
case in point.
“If
unchecked, the right to self-defense will not only be abused more frequently by
such states, but also they will institute further exceptions to the principle
of the prohibition of the threat or use of force,” Takht Ravanchi said.
He
pointed to the US’s brutal assassination of General Soleimani, the commander of
the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, in Iraq early in 2020
in a gross violation of the basic norms and principles of international law.
Takht
Ravanchi said the US administration, through its communication to the Security
Council president, desperately attempted to “justify such an obvious act of
terrorism through a series of fabrications and an extremely arbitrary interpretation
of the Charter’s Article 51.”
To
justify the crime, Trump baselessly claimed the Iranian general was targeted
because he was planning “imminent and sinister” attacks on US diplomats and
military personnel.
However,
he added, “Many international law scholars and practitioners have categorically
rejected such an interpretation of the right to self-defense.”
Elsewhere
in his address, Takht Ravanchi commended as “one of the greatest
accomplishments” of the Security Council the prohibition of the threat or use
of force, save the two exceptional cases authorized by the UN Charter, and said
the preservation and full observance of the cardinal principle of international
law are a “collective responsibility that must be fulfilled responsibly.”
The
Iranian diplomat highlighted the importance of an obligation by all countries
to protect their citizens and territories and enjoy an inherent right to
self-defense.
He
said, “the term ‘inherent’, clearly and adequately reflects the natural
foundations and essential importance of this right, which of course, must be
exercised only ‘if an armed attack occurs’” while heeding the criteria of
necessity, proportionality and immediacy.
He
further added that all countries should “immediately” brief the Security
Council of the main elements of their self-defense measures which might be
different from one case to another.
“It
is obvious that Article 51 has not obligated states to observe specific
requirements, other than immediacy, in their reporting, and therefore, has left
the decision to the discretion of reporting states,” the Iranian envoy pointed
out.
He
stressed the importance of avoiding any reinterpretation or arbitrary
interpretation of Articles 2 (4) and 51 of the UN Charter in order to “prevent
the progressive erosion of the principle of prohibition of the threat or use of
force.”
Lieutenant
General Soleimani was assassinated in a US drone strike on Baghdad
International Airport in Iraq on January 3, 2020.
The
airstrike also martyred Deputy Commander of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Unit
(PMU) Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. The two were martyred in an American airstrike
that targeted their vehicle on the road to the airport.
Five
Iranian and five Iraqi military men were martyred by the missiles fired by the
US drone at Baghdad International Airport.
On
January 8, 2020 and after the funeral ceremony of General Soleimani, the IRGC
Aerospace Force started heavy ballistic missile attacks on US Ein Al-Assad
airbase in Southwestern Iraq near the border with Syria and a US operated airbase
in Erbil in retaliation for the US assassination of General Soleimani.
Ein
Al-Assad is an airbase with a 4km runway at 188m altitude from sea levels,
which is the main and the largest US airbase in Iraq. Early reports said the
radar systems and missile defense shields in Ein Al-Assad failed to operate and
intercept the Iranian missiles. Unofficial reports said the US army's central
radar systems at Ein Al-Assad had been jammed by electronic warfare.
The
second IRGC reprisal attack targeted a US military base near Erbil airport in
Iraqi Kurdistan Region in the second leg of "Martyr Soleimani"
reprisal operation.
Iraq
said the attacks had not taken any toll from its army men stationed at these
two bases. The US army had blocked entrance into Ein Al-Assad to everyone,
including the Iraqi army.
The
IRGC officials said none of the missiles had been intercepted.
Meantime,
Iran announced in late June that it had issued arrest warrants for 36 officials
of the US and other countries who have been involved in the assassination of
the martyred General Soleimani.
"36
individuals who have been involved or ordered the assassination of Hajj Qassem,
including the political and military officials of the US and other governments,
have been identified and arrest warrants have been issued for them by the
judiciary officials and red alerts have also been issued for them via the
Interpol," Alqasi Mehr said at the time.
He
said that the prosecuted individuals are accused of murder and terrorist
action, adding that US President Donald Trump stands at the top of the list and
will be prosecuted as soon as he stands down presidency after his term ends.
https://www.farsnews.ir/en/news/13991207000270/Iran-US-Assassinain-f-General-Sleimani-Vilain-f-In'l-Law
--------
UN
calls on Israel to immediately stop demolishing Palestinian homes, buildings in
West Bank
25
February 2021
The
United Nations has called on the Israeli regime to immediately halt its razing
of Palestinian homes and structures in the occupied West Bank, saying such
actions are contrary to international law and undermine humanitarian efforts
across the occupied territories.
United
Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory Lynn
Hastings said in a statement that the recent Israeli demolition of Palestinian
homes and evacuation of local residents and confiscation of their lands
contravened international law, and were all in flagrant violation of human
rights law.
The
statement came a day after Hastings visited the community of Humsa al-Baqai'a, in
the northern Jordan Valley, where the homes and belongings of families living
there were either demolished or seized by Israel in an effort to drive them out
of their lands.
"I
visited the community of Humsa al-Baqai'a, which is situated some hundreds of
meters into a firing zone in the northern West Bank… The homes and belongings
of the families living there were demolished or confiscated five times by the
Israeli authorities since the beginning of February," the UN official
said.
"Tents,
food, water tanks and fodder for their livestock have all been confiscated
despite repeated calls by the international community for these actions to stop
in accordance with international law," she added.
"As
we have noted previously, situations where communities are put under pressure
to move raises a real risk of forcible transfer."
Hastings
also demanded Israel to allow humanitarian agencies to provide shelter, food
and water to the vulnerable Palestinian communities living in Area C, which
accounts for more than 60 percent of the occupied West Bank, and forms a
significant part of a future Palestine state under the so-called two-state
solution.
Israeli
authorities usually demolish Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank,
claiming that the structures have been built without permits, which are nearly
impossible to obtain.
They
also sometimes order Palestinian owners to demolish their own homes or pay the
demolition costs to the municipality if they do not.
The
latest demolition has drawn widespread condemnation against the Israeli regime
for exploiting the coronavirus crisis to press ahead with its campaign of
razing Palestinian homes.
Israeli
prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a plan for grabbing a huge swathe
of the West Bank, namely the areas upon which the regime has built its illegal
settlements since occupying the territory in 1967, as well as the strategic
Jordan Valley. He made the announcement after former US President Donald Trump
unveiled the “deal of the century,” a hugely pro-Tel Aviv scheme.
Following
the signing of normalization agreements with Israel by the United Arab
Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco, there has been a rapid increase in Tel
Aviv's demolition of Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem
al-Quds.
The
rise is coupled with an increase in deportation of Palestinians from Jerusalem
al-Quds, their expulsion from al-Aqsa Mosque and daily storming of the compound
by extremist settlers.
More
than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli
occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds.
All
Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. The UN Security
Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied
territories in several resolutions.
Palestinians
want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East
Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/02/25/646057/UN-Lynn-Hastings-Israel-Palestine-West-Bank-
--------
Turkey
‘strongly condemns attempted coup’ in Armenia
25
February ,2021
Turkey
on Thursday “strongly condemned” what it described as an attempted coup in
neighboring Armenia, where Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan was facing calls by
the military’s top brass to resign.
Pashinyan
has faced political pressure since Armenia ceded swathes of territory in its
war with Azerbaijan last year over the mountainous region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Turkey
backed Azerbaijan in the six-week conflict, which ended with a November truce
brokered by Russia.
But
although Turkey and Armenia have a complex history of troubled relations,
Ankara said it stood by Pashinyan’s democratically-elected government.
“We
strongly condemn the attempted coup in Armenia,” Turkish Foreign Minister
Mevlut Cavusoglu told a news conference in Budapest.
“We
are absolutely against coups and coup attempts anywhere in the world.”
Pashinyan
urged his supporters to take to the street and dismissed the head of Armenia’s
general staff on Thursday, as the country teetered on the brink of chaos.
Cavusoglu
said coup attempts threatened to destabilize the entire Caucasus region.
“Therefore,
we are against it,” he said.
“In
democracies, people could criticize the government and demand its resignation.
This is natural. But the army’s call on government to resign, let alone stage a
coup, is unacceptable,” Cavusoglu said.
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2021/02/25/Turkey-strongly-condemns-attempted-coup-in-Armenia
--------
Iran
says it’s investigating deadly incident on Pakistan border
26
February ,2021
Iran
is investigating an incident in which at least two Iranians were shot dead this
week at the border with Pakistan, and Islamabad has handed over the body of one
of the victims, the Iranian foreign ministry said on Friday.
Monday’s
shooting of at least two people carrying fuel across the border led to protests
that spread from the city of Saravan to other areas in the southeastern
province of Sistan-Baluchistan, including the capital, Zahedan.
A
provincial security official has said calm has returned to the province with
the help of religious leaders. Media quoted prominent Baluch Sunni Muslim
religious leader Molavi Abdulhamid as urging calm and calling for an
independent investigation.
“The
body of at least one person was delivered by Pakistan’s border guards. We are
reviewing the incident,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh was
quoted as saying by Iranian media.
Protesters
stormed a governor’s office in southeastern Iran on Tuesday and set fire to a
police car, according to videos posted on social media. Security forces used
tear gas to disperse the crowd. Reuters could not verify the authenticity of
the footage.
Sistan-Baluchistan’s
population is predominantly Sunni Muslim, while most Iranians are Shi’ite. Iran
has some of the lowest fuel prices in the world and has been fighting smuggling
to neighboring countries.
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2021/02/26/Iran-says-it-s-investigating-deadly-incident-on-Pakistan-border-
--------
Houthis
target Marib residential area with ballistic missile
Ismaeel
Naar
26
February ,2021
The
Iran-backed Houthi militia group has targeted the hotspot city of Marib with a
ballistic missile, according to Yemeni reports.
The
reports suggested that the ballistic missile launched on Thursday had landed in
a residential area of Marib, the city currently a hotspot of infighting between
the government and the Houthis.
The
missile strike comes as the Houthis press further ground attacks on the
frontlines south of Marib.
The
attack by Iran-aligned Houthi forces on government-held Marib city comes amid
renewed diplomacy to end the six-year war, and as the United States said it
would end support for the Arab Coalition backing the internationally recognised
Yemeni government.
The
United Nations has urged the Houthis to return to negotiations, and said the
offensive threatened mass displacement.
Hundreds
of fighters from both sides have been killed in clashes in the gas-rich Marib
region, the sources said. They were not authorised to speak publicly about operational
matters.
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/gulf/2021/02/26/Houthis-target-Marib-residential-area-with-ballistic-missile
--------
Hamas
urges Palestinian Authority to release members jailed in West Bank
25
February 2021
The
Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has urged Fatah-led Palestinian Authority
(PA) to prepare a fair atmosphere for free elections and halt all forms of
persecution against its members in the West Bank.
In
a statement released on Thursday, Hamas called on the Ramallah-based authority
to release all political prisoners held at West Bank jails and guarantee media
freedom.
“It
is high time to turn the page of the past once and for all and move forward
towards a true Palestinian partnership capable of rebuilding the Palestinian
political system on sound foundations,” the statement read.
Hamas
also hailed the Gaza Interior Ministry for releasing nearly four dozen
detainees accused or convicted of committing serious violations that directly
harmed the Palestinian resistance.
It
said the step reflected “the keenness of the movement and the government
apparatuses in Gaza on creating more positive climates in light of the
preparations for the elections.”
In
January, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced that the 2021 elections
would include the legislative vote scheduled for May 22, the presidential vote
to be held on July 31 and the Palestinian National Council elections slated for
August 31.
The
announcement came after Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the Hamas political bureau,
wrote a letter to the Palestinian president, calling for an end to divisions.
Rival
Palestinian factions united after former US President Donald Trump unveiled the
“deal of the century,” a hugely pro-Tel Aviv scheme.
The
Palestinian leadership has been divided between Fatah and Hamas since 2006,
when the latter scored a landslide victory in parliamentary elections in the
besieged Gaza Strip.
Hamas
has ever since been running the densely-populated coastal enclave, while Fatah
has been based in the autonomous parts of the occupied West Bank.
Relations
between the Palestinian Authority and the United States soured after Trump
recognized the whole Jerusalem al-Quds as the “capital” of Israel and moved the
US embassy from Tel Aviv to the city.
Trump
had also cut aid to Palestinians in the West Bank and proposed the
much-condemned plan that allowed Israel to seize large parts of the West Bank
and the Jordan Valley.
The
key Palestinian factions recently held talks in Egypt to tackle issues that
could jeopardize long-awaited elections. A range of thorny issues such as
judicial and security arrangements for the vote and the fate of Palestinian
voters in East Jerusalem al-Quds were discussed during the reconciliation
talks.
After
long years of divisions, Palestinians hope to witness a real internal
reconciliation on the ground; they say the most important thing is to translate
the statements from both Fatah and Hamas groups to immediate actions.
Palestinians believe rebuilding the political system on sound democratic bases
is not impossible without free and transparent elections.
Hamas
has for years defended the besieged Gaza Strip from frequent Israeli
incursions, notably during three wars the regime imposed on the impoverished
enclave.
Israel
captured the West Bank, Gaza, and the East Jerusalem al-Quds in the 1967 war,
territories the Palestinians want for their future state.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/02/25/646068/Palestine-Hamas-West-Bank-PA-US-Israel
--------
Netanyahu
asked Biden to keep Trump's sanctions on ICC: Report
25
February 2021
Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reportedly asked US President Joe Biden
to maintain his predecessor’s sanctions on the International Criminal Court
(ICC), which has over the past years been investigating the Tel Aviv regime’s
war crimes in the Palestinian territories.
Citing
Israeli officials, the Virginia-based Axios news website reported on Wednesday
that Netanyahu had made the request during his first phone call with Biden last
week.
The
report said Israeli officials had argued that Washington should maintain the
sanctions imposed by the administration of former US President Donald Trump as
leverage against investigations in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza
Strip as well as Afghanistan, where the US itself is accused of having
committed war crimes.
The
sanctions were also discussed in a phone call between Foreign Minister Gabi
Ashkenazi and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to the report by
Axios.
In
a major decision earlier this month, a pre-trial chamber of the ICC determined
that The Hague-based tribunal had jurisdiction to investigate the atrocities
committed by the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank and the besieged
Gaza Strip since 1967.
Michael
Lynk, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the
Palestinian territories, hailed the decision and said the ruling “opens the
door” for justice in Palestine.
The
US is also currently being investigated by the ICC for war crimes in
Afghanistan, and when Trump was in office, he imposed sanctions on the ICC's
chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, as well as Phakiso Mochochoko, the ICC
director of jurisdiction, in order to block them from carrying out their
investigation or being able to travel to the United States.
The
Biden administration has signaled a less confrontational line but has not said
whether it will drop the sanctions against Bensouda, who has called the
measures “unacceptable.”
Israel
occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip — territories
the Palestinians want for their future state — during the six-day Arab-Israeli
war in 1967. It later had to withdraw from Gaza.
About
700,000 Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built in the West Bank
and East Jerusalem al-Quds since then. The international community views the
settlements as illegal under international law but has done little to pressure
the Israeli regime to freeze or reverse its policies.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/02/25/646044/Israel-Benjamin-Netanyahu-ICC-war-crimes
--------
South
Asia
Expect
Productive Peace Talks With Afghan Govt In Doha, Say Taliban
25
February, 2021
Doha
[Qatar], February 25 (ANI/Sputnik): The Taliban are counting on productive
peace talks with the Afghan government in Qatar though the sides are still
discussing the exact topics of negotiations, the official spokesman for the
Taliban's political office in Doha, Mohammad Naim, told Sputnik on Thursday.
"Before
we reached an agreement with the United States, the negotiations had been ongoing
for about one year and a half, so we now also expect to reach an agreement in
peace talks with Kabul," Naim said.
He
also noted that the negotiating sides have so far not reached an agreement that
would allow them to discuss a prospective ceasefire.
"We
are currently discussing topics to put on the agenda; which issues we should
talk about. Agreeing on an agenda is already part of the progress," he
said.
The
intra-Afghan peace negotiations were launched in Qatar's Doha back in
September. Both sides have announced that they agreed on the framework of the
talks, allowing for discussions on substantive issues to kick off. At the same
time, clashes between the government forces and the Taliban opposition
movement, as well as bomb explosions, continue to ravage the country.
(ANI/Sputnik)
http://www.businessworld.in/article/Expect-productive-peace-talks-with-Afghan-govt-in-Doha-say-Taliban-/25-02-2021-381927/
--------
Germany
extends its mission in Afghanistan
25
Feb 2021
The
German government on Wednesday agreed to extend its military mandate in
Afghanistan by at least another 10 months.
Officials
in Germany agreed to extend the military mandate in Afghan Afghanistan by at
least another 10 months.
The
new draft mandate still requires the approval of Bundestag, the lower house of
the German parliament, Deutsche Welle reported.
The
current mandate is expected to expire by end of this March, the new draft
agreed by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet will allow German troops to stay
in the country beyond until 31, 2022, DW said in their report.
Germany
“takes account appropriately of the complex situation in Afghanistan and also
makes possible the flexibility necessary to be able to react if the volatile
security and threat situation there changes”, German government’s spokesman
Steffen Seibert said.
With
over 1,100 troops, Germany has the second-largest contingent after the United
States in the NATO’s Resolute Support mission in Afghanistan.
NATO’s
second-biggest troop contributor in Afghanistan is Germany with over 1,100
troops, and the maximum limit of 1,300 troops will remain intact, Siebert
added.
This
comes in a bid that violence in the country remained high, a recent report in
the media indicated that at least six public uprising force members were killed
and four others were injured in an explosion in western Herat province on
Wednesday.
An
explosive-laden vehicle exploded close to a security outpost in Qudus Abad
village in Kohsan district of the province, which later was followed by a
battle between the Taliban and government forces, Sayed Waheed Qatali Herat’s
governor told media.
The
battle reportedly continued for several hours.
Escalation
of targeted attacks, IED explosions, car bombs, suicides, and battles in
various parts of the county including Kabul sparked outrage and fear among the
public.
https://www.khaama.com/germany-extends-its-mission-in-afghanistan-1234455/
--------
McKenzie
placed a ‘large measure of the blame’ on the Taliban for extreme violence
25
Feb 2021
General
Kenneth F. McKenzie said the US and NATO’s withdrawal decision depends on the
situation and negotiated settlements between the Taliban and the Afghan
government are highly supported.
He
said currently the US finds level of the violence in Afghanistan to an extreme
level.
While
speaking at a virtual Beirut Institute Summit McKenzie said “I place a large
measure of the blame on the Taliban who have continued to mount offensive
operations and targeted killings of Afghan officials but the excessive violence
has led the government to launch their own defensive operations to protect
themselves – the violence while too high on both sides,”.
He
indicated that there is no sign that Taliban cut ties with Al-Qaeda.
“In
my clear judgment rests largely on the Taliban; we also continue to … look for signs
of a Taliban break with al-Qaeda and I have not at this point seen any
definitive signs that would lead to believe they’re prepared to or able to
honor their obligations,” McKenzie added.
This
comes as Pakistani Foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi met with Mohammad
Omar Daudzai, the Afghan President’s special representative on Thursday.
Qureshi
stressed his concerns over the increased level of violence in Afghanistan and
added that Pakistan seeks a political solution to the Afghan war.
He
added that peace talks are a shared responsibility and Pakistan will continue
playing its conciliatory role.
https://www.khaama.com/mckenzie-placed-a-large-measure-of-the-blame-on-the-taliban-for-extreme-violence-123311/
--------
Top
Democrat expects some ‘extension’ of troops in Afghanistan
25
Feb 2021
Senator
Jack Reed said he favored seeking an extension of the May 1 deadline for
withdrawing troops that President Donald Trump and the Taliban negotiated last
year, The New York Times reported.
American
Senator Jack Reed has favored US troops’ withdrawal beyond the May deadline.
According
to the New York Times, Jack said the US should look for an extension to give
diplomats to negotiate an agreement between the Afghan government and the
Taliban.
“To
pull out within several months now is a very challenging and destabilizing
effort,” Jack said in a video conference organized by George Washington
University.
He
added his voice to a growing number of national security specialists, including
those on a bipartisan, congressionally appointed panel, who argue, in essence,
for abandoning the May 1 timetable.
“I
would expect some extension,” Reed said, even if that ultimately meant more
time for the United States to withdraw the 2,500 troops in the country now.
He
also underscored that a top American national security priority should be to
prevent terrorist organizations, such as al-Qaeda and Daesh, from using
Afghanistan as a safe haven from which to carry out strikes.
He
said that America’s top national security priority should include prevention of
Afghanistan from being used as safe heaven by groups such as Al-Qaeda and
Daesh.
“We’ve
got to be able to assure the world and the American public that Afghanistan
will not be a source of planning, plotting to project terrorist attacks around
the globe,” he added, “that’s the minimum. I’m not sure we can do that without
some presence there.”
Early
this week, Michael McCaul, a top US Republican, has said in an interview with
CNN that President Biden needs to keep US troops in Afghanistan to prevent the
Taliban from taking over.
Michael
McCaul, a Republican US representative was quoted by CNN saying “I think
Afghanistan can be very important. I hope that the Biden administration I can
work with them on this and talk to Secretary Blinken and the national security
adviser about leaving a residual force there to protect the homeland and not
allow the Taliban to take over their country,”.
This
comes as a senior Pakistani military official on Thursday said that his country
will never support the Taliban and that the Pakistan government’s main goals
are for a prolonged peace in Afghanistan.
The
director-general of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Major
General Babar Iftikhar said as quoted by International The News that “Afghanistan
now is not what it was in the 90s and the state infrastructure cannot be
trounced easily, and Pakistan also has changed,”.
Iftikhar
added, “It’s impossible for the Taliban to recapture Kabul and that Pakistan
would support them. It isn’t going to happen”.
“Even
Afghan leaders are admitting that Pakistan has done utmost for peace in
Afghanistan,” the ISPR director-general said.
He
explained that Afghans and their government should determine the future of
Afghanistan, the developments of peace talks, and who they back to take it on,
he added “We only aim for a long-lasting peace in Afghanistan,”.
The
policy of the Pakistan government to offer support in peace to its neighbors
was clear, ISPR general indicated.
https://www.khaama.com/top-democrat-expects-some-extension-of-troops-in-afghanistan-334433/
--------
Taliban
attack on Afghan district repulsed, 12 killed
2021-02-26
FAIZABAD,
Afghanistan, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- At least 12 militants have been confirmed dead
and the Taliban attempts to gain ground in Nasai district of the northern
Badakhshan province were repulsed, said an army statement released on Friday.
A
total of 12 Taliban militants including some foreign nationals have been killed
in Nasai district over the past 24 hours, the statement said.
Taliban
key commander Qari Hafiz is also among those killed in the clash, the statement
said.
Without
identifying the nationalities of the alleged foreign fighters, the statement
noted that the security forces would continue to chase the insurgents to ensure
lasting peace in the area.
Taliban
militants who are active in parts of Badakhshan province with Faizabad as its
capital 315 km northeast of Kabul have yet to make comments. Enditem
http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/asiapacific/2021-02/26/c_139769219.htm
--------
North
America
Biden
says he has read US intel on Khashoggi killing
Michael
Gabriel Hernandez
25.02.2021
WASHINGTON
US
President Joe Biden said Wednesday he has read the intelligence community's
assessment on the culpability for the death of slain Washington Post columnist
Jamal Khashoggi.
The
report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is expected to
be released in an unclassified form as early as Thursday with the expectation
that it will conclude that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the
Kingdom's de facto ruler, was directly responsible for Khashoggi's murder.
Former
President Donald Trump had consistently sought to shield bin Salman from being
blamed for the grisly murder and had bucked US law mandating the report's
release to lawmakers.
Director
of National Intelligence Avril Haines committed during her confirmation hearing
to following the law by providing Congress with the report.
Biden
said he would soon speak with Saudi King Salman but did not specify a date after
reports indicated the call could happen Wednesday.
Khashoggi
was brutally killed and likely dismembered inside the Saudi consulate in
Istanbul, Turkey in October 2018, and while Saudi officials initially denied
any role in his death, they later sought to pin blame on what they said was a
botched rendition operation.
That
explanation has been widely rejected by both the UN and a wide group of US
lawmakers. The CIA reportedly concluded the month after Khashoggi was murdered
that bin Salman directly ordered his killing in a report that remains
classified to this day.
CNN
reported earlier Wednesday that documents filed as part of an unrelated lawsuit
in Canada allege that the two private jets used by the Saudi kill team were
owned by a company seized by bin Salman.
The
Top Secret documents reportedly state that bin Salman ordered Sky Prime
Aviation folded into Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund in 2017, the year
before Khashoggi was killed.
Bin
Salman controls the fund, formally known as the Public Investment Fund, as its
chairman.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/biden-says-he-has-read-us-intel-on-khashoggi-killing/2156229
--------
Biden
orders US strikes on Iran-backed militia in Syria: Pentagon
Ismaeel
Naar
26
February ,2021
US
President Joe Biden has ordered an airstrike against Iran-backed militia in
Syria following rocket attacks against US forces in Iraq.
“At
President Biden’s direction, US military forces earlier this evening conducted
airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant groups in
eastern Syria. These strikes were authorized in response to recent attacks
against American and Coalition personnel in Iraq, and to ongoing threats to
those personnel,” read a statement from the Pentagon.
“Specifically,
the strikes destroyed multiple facilities located at a border control point
used by a number of Iranian-backed militant groups, including Kait’ib Hezbollah
(KH) and Kait’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS),” the statement added.
On
Monday, at least three rockets targeted the US embassy in the high-security
Green Zone of Iraq’s capital Baghdad, in an attack the US blamed on Iran. The
attack was the third in a week to target Western diplomatic, military or
commercial installations in Iraq after months of relative calm.
In
October, the US threatened to close its embassy in Baghdad if the attacks did
not stop, so hardline groups agreed to an indefinite truce.
“This
proportionate military response was conducted together with diplomatic
measures, including consultation with Coalition partners. The operation sends
an unambiguous message: President Biden will act to protect American and
Coalition personnel. At the same time, we have acted in a deliberate manner
that aims to de-escalate the overall situation in both eastern Syria and Iraq,”
the Pentagon added in its statement.
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2021/02/26/US-strikes-Iranian-backed-militant-infrastructure-in-Syria-Pentagon
--------
Don’t
make same Iran mistakes as Obama, US members of Congress tell Biden
Joseph
Haboush
24
February ,2021
A
group of more than 40 US senators and members of Congress Thursday took a step
toward trying to prevent President Joe Biden from lifting sanctions on Iran.
Biden
and members of the administration have made no secret about their intentions of
rejoining the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was signed when
Biden was vice president under Barack Obama in 2015.
During
former President Donald Trump’s four-year term, he withdrew the US from the
deal and imposed crushing economic sanctions on Tehran.
Biden
has withdrawn the US claim that “snapback” sanctions were put into effect as a
result of Iran’s violations of the JCPOA. He has also lifted travel
restrictions on Iranian diplomats at the UN and revoked the terrorist
designation of Iran-backed militias and these non-state actors' leaders.
However,
critics of Biden’s softer approach are urging him to use the sanctions that
have choked the Iranian regime as leverage.
The
now-defunct JCPOA failed to engage any of Washington’s regional allies during
negotiations, and it did not address Iran’s proxies around the world as well as
its ballistic missile program.
On
Thursday, US Senator Tom Cotton and Congressman Mike Gallagher introduced the
resolution, which had the signature of 44 other members on Capitol Hill.
“The
United States must maintain sanctions on the Iranian regime until it abandons
its nuclear ambitions and ends its support for violence and terror around the
region,” a statement released by the signees said.
“Iran
took advantage of weak policies during the Obama Administration, and President
Biden must not repeat those same mistakes,” the statement read.
Last
week, the US expressed its willingness to sit down with Iran to discuss the
nuclear deal after the European Union extended the invite to Tehran.
Iran
has so far given Biden and his administration the cold shoulder. But on
Wednesday, State Department Spokesman Ned Price said the US was waiting, “but
our patience is not unlimited.”
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2021/02/25/Iran-nuclear-deal-Don-t-make-same-mistakes-as-Obama-US-members-of-Congress-tell-Biden
--------
US
military strike on resistance fighters draws strong condemnation
26
February 2021
A
US military strike on facilities belonging to resistance fighters on the
Syrian-Iraqi border, the first authorized by President Joe Biden since taking
office, has sparked strong condemnation and outrage.
Russia
termed the airstrike that came in the wee hours of Friday morning as “illegal”
and “extremely dangerous”, which it said could “lead to escalation of
situation” and “outbreak of a major conflict”.
In
a statement, Vladimir Dzhabarov, deputy chairman of Russian parliament’s
international affairs committee, said Syria possesses “modern weapons including
S-300 installations”, warning the US to be “extremely careful with such
action”.
Earlier,
the Pentagon said the attack was carried out on Biden’s order, terming it a
“defensive precision strike” in retaliation to recent rocket attacks on the US
and coalition troops in Iraq.
However,
that narrative appears to have few takers in cyberspace, as social media users
strongly denounced the provocative act, suggesting that “the war machine is
back”.
Actually,
yes they do. I think you do not know how government works. https://t.co/METESg7Rpj
—
Carmine Sabia (@CarmineSabia) February 26, 2021
Journalist
and podcast host Ben Norton slammed the Biden administration for what he termed
the “US dirty war on Syria”, started by Biden’s former boss Obama and continued
by the Republican Trump.
Biden
is again bombing Syria, continuing the US dirty on Syria, a decade after Obama
started it, and after Trump prolonged it as well.
3
US presidents over 10 years have waged war on Syria.
(Also
note the vague phrase "Iranian-backed" could mean a variety of
different forces) https://t.co/CLv8w1fomZ
—
Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) February 25, 2021
Pakistani
novelist and commentator Fatima Bhutto, drawing parallels between Biden and
Trump and their dangerous Middle East policy, said the “American power” is the
kind of power “that bombs Syria in the middle of a pandemic”.
American
power is American power. Trump or Biden, it's the absolute same thing: the kind
of power that bombs Syria in the middle of a pandemic, that has money for war
but not healthcarehttps://t.co/899s7eCLhb
—
fatima bhutto (@fbhutto) February 26, 2021
Richard
Medhurst, a British-Syrian journalist, said the US claim on the strike is the
“same old lame excuse the Israelis use to bomb Syria on a weekly basis,” adding
that the Iran-Syria cooperation should be “none of the US' business.”
"US
carries out airstrike on Iranian-backed militia target": this is the same
old lame excuse the Israelis use to bomb Syria on a weekly basis. They must be
happy.
Syria
and Iran are allies and cooperate on many issues incl. the military. That's
frankly none of the US' business.
—
Richard Medhurst 🇸🇾🇵🇸 (@richimedhurst) February 26,
2021
US
journalist and filmmaker Dan Cohen, said it is time for the US “to get out of
Syria and Iraq”, since the Iraq parliament has already voted to expel the US
military a year ago.
Biden’s
Syria bombing is framed as retaliation for an attack on US troops by an Iraqi
militia backed by Iran. Corporate media doesn’t mention that Iraq voted to
expel the US military a year ago, which Biden and Trump refused to do. Time for
the US to get out of Syria and Iraq. https://t.co/8Z51SqNuO8
pic.twitter.com/7OVX1GiXi3
—
Dan Cohen (@dancohen3000) February 26, 2021
Max
Blumenthal, journalist and author, describing the US national security “in a
nutshell” said the new US administration and its NATO allies are “protecting
the remnants of Al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate in Idlib while bombing the forces
that arrived in Syria to counter them”.
US
"national security" in a nutshell: The Biden administration and its
NATO allies are protecting the remnants of Al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate in Idlib
while bombing the forces that arrived in Syria to counter them
https://t.co/PG3nMCJf7n
—
Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) February 26, 2021
The
strike also drew sharp reactions in Iran, with many observers, activists and
academics denouncing it as a fool-hardy provocation.
Senior
academic and political commentator Mohammad Marandi said the US-affiliated
media says “Iranian-backed” because they “don’t want to admit they are
murdering Iraqi troops fighting ISIS”.
US
regime affiliated media says "Iranian backed," because they don't
want to admit they are murdering Iraqi troops fighting ISIS
Significantly,
ISIS is also using US occupied territory in Syria to attack Syrian soldiers
By
murdering young Iraqis, Biden wants to look masculine https://t.co/0DjH0BGcUn
—
Seyed Mohammad Marandi (@s_m_marandi) February 26, 2021
Poet
and writer Masoud Mortazavi said it is “ridiculous to blame Iran” for not
restraining people in the neighborhood “who resist US invasion and occupation
of their countries”.
Honest
accounting of the truth in the field is the first step to a sane foreign
policy.
The
US media cannot even bring themselves to say, honestly, that
***"The
people in the region are resisting our invasion and occupation forces."***
Newspeak
is the name of their game.
—
masood mortazavi (@mortazavi) February 26, 2021
According
to local sources, at least 17 resistance fighters have been killed in the
attack.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/02/26/646102/US-Syria-Iraq-Airstrike-Resistance
--------
Biden
pressed to clarify policy on Saudi aggression against Yemen
26
February 2021
Dozens
of Democratic Congress members press US President Joe Biden to further clarify
his position on Saudi Arabia’s now-six-year-old war of aggression against
Yemen.
Forty-one
lawmakers made the demand from Biden in a letter released on Thursday.
Earlier
this month, Biden said he would end the US’s support for the war. He, however,
left much room for question after he added that Washington would still
"continue to support and help Saudi Arabia defend its sovereignty and its
territorial integrity."
Under
the same pretext of helping out Saudi Arabia -- Washington’s most treasured
regional ally after the Israeli regime -- Biden's predecessor Donald Trump used
to pour out advanced and precision arms and munition into the kingdom that
Riyadh would, in turn, rain down on Yemen without any qualms.
The
support included a $110-million arms deal with Riyadh, to which Trump travelled
in his maiden foreign trip at the height of the war. Washington would also lend
ample logistical support, including bombing coordinates, and political
patronage for the kingdom and its allies’ bloodshed against the impoverished
country.
Tens
of thousands of Yemenis have died and entire Yemen turned into the scene of the
world’s worst humanitarian crisis in the course of the war. The kingdom and its
allies launched the military campaign in 2015 to return power to Yemen’s former
pro-Riyadh officials.
Congress
members asked Biden in the letter, "You have said that the United States
will 'continue to support and help Saudi Arabia defend its sovereignty and its
territorial integrity…. What activities does this policy entail, and under what
legal authority is the Administration authorized to engage in such
activities?"
Last
month, the Biden administration issued a temporary freeze on some Trump-era
weapons sales to Saudi Arabia as it started a review of arms deals with Riyadh.
The
prospect of further breakaway from the former administration’s no-holds-barred
support for Saudi Arabia comes as the US was also to publicize a damning report
on the 2018 murder of a Saudi dissident journalist that could likewise endanger
the premium quality of the two sides’ relations.
The
declassified intelligence summary, which is based largely on work by the US Central
Intelligence Agency, would come out later in the day, with the US media saying
it is to implicate Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the foul play that
targeted Jamal Khashoggi.
Khashoggi
was slain and dismembered in October that year after entering the Saudi
Consulate in Istanbul.
Shortly
after Khashoggi's murder, the CIA assessed with high confidence that bin Salman
had personally ordered the murder.
Trump,
though, would keep protecting the kingdom against any accountability as seen by
his bragging in 2019 that he prevented bin Salman from congressional scrutiny.
"I
saved his ass," Trump said in recorded interviews with journalist Bob
Woodward. "I was able to get Congress to leave him alone. I was able to
get them to stop," the former chief executive said.
CNN,
though, cited Dennis Ross, counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East
Policy, as saying that the release of the report was “the administration's way
of saying to Saudi Arabia, 'We're not going to shield you from the consequences
of bad behavior, and so it's best to avoid those behaviors.'"
"I
think the Biden administration wants to demonstrate clearly that it is a new
day after the Trump administration ... also just to send a message to the
Saudis that the relationship is going to be re-calibrated," Ross added.
The
pending publication of the summary was made possible after Biden spoke with
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on the phone.
During
the call -- the first conversation between Biden as US president and the Saudi
king -- Biden "affirmed the importance the United States places on
universal human rights and the rule of law," a White House readout of the
call claimed.
Biden
and King Salman also "discussed regional security, including the renewed
diplomatic efforts led by the United Nations and the United States to end the
war in Yemen," the White House statement said.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/02/26/646081/Saudi-Arabia-United-States-Yemen-war-Biden-Khashoggi
--------
Arab
World
US
strikes 'Iranian-backed militant' site in Syria: Pentagon
February
26, 2021
The
United States military struck facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran-backed
armed groups on Thursday, saying President Joe Biden's new administration was
sending Tehran a message after recent rocket attacks on US troop locations in
Iraq.
In
its first military action against Iran-backed groups since Biden became
president five weeks ago, the US Defence Department said it had carried out
airstrikes at a Syria-Iraq border control point used by those groups, destroying
"multiple facilities".
“At
President Biden's direction, US military forces earlier this evening conducted
airstrikes against infrastructure utilised by Iranian-backed militant groups in
eastern Syria,” said spokesman John Kirby in a statement.
“These
strikes were authorised in response to recent attacks against American and
Coalition personnel in Iraq, and to ongoing threats to those personnel,” he
said.
17
reported killed
Kirby
did not say whether there were any casualties in Thursday's attack.
But
the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 17 people were killed after
the strike hit three trucks loaded with munitions coming from Iraq near the
Syrian city of Bukamal.
The
group said all the dead were from Iraq's state-sponsored Hashed al-Shaabi
force, the umbrella group over many small militias that allegedly have ties to
Iran.
Kirby
said the location was used by Kataeb Hezbollah and Kataeb Sayyid al-Shuhada,
two armed Iraqi militants groups under Hashed al-Shaabi.
Reprisal
for rocket attacks
The
US action followed three rocket attacks on facilities in Iraq used by United
States and coalition forces fighting the militant Islamic State group.
One
of those strikes, on a military complex in the Kurdish region's capital Arbil
on February 15, killed a civilian and a foreign contractor working with
coalition forces, and injured several US contractors and a soldier.
The
attacks in Iraq laid down a challenge to the new Biden administration just as
it opened a door to resumed negotiations with Tehran over its alleged nuclear
weapons programme.
Last
week, the administration offered talks with Iran led by European allies as it
sought to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal, left on the brink of collapse after
the previous government of President Donald Trump withdrew from it.
But
the administration has also made clear it would not brook “malign activities”
in the region by Iran.
Iran
is believed to be searching for an opportunity to avenge the US assassination
of top general Qasem Soleimani one year ago.
Soleimani,
a senior officer in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, was Tehran's key
liaison to allied groups and figures in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere in
the region.
He
was killed in a US drone strike just as he arrived in Baghdad for meetings with
top Iraqi officials.
State
Department spokesman Ned Price said on Monday the US would “hold Iran
responsible for the actions of its proxies that attack Americans” but would not
“lash out” and risk destabilising Iraq.
Kirby
called Thursday's strikes “proportionate” and said it “was conducted together
with diplomatic measures”, including consultation with US partners in the
anti-IS coalition.
“The
operation sends an unambiguous message: President Biden will act to protect
American and Coalition personnel,” he said.
“At
the same time, we have acted in a deliberate manner that aims to de-escalate
the overall situation in both eastern Syria and Iraq,” he added.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1609515/us-strikes-iranian-backed-militant-site-in-syria-pentagon
--------
Russia
says its closely monitoring situation in Syria following US airstrikes
26
February ,2021
The
Kremlin said on Friday it was closely monitoring the situation in Syria
following US air strikes there and that it was in constant contact with the
Syrian authorities.
President
Joe Biden on Thursday directed US military air strikes in eastern Syria against
facilities belonging to what the Pentagon said were Iran-backed militia, in a
calibrated response to rocket attacks against US targets in Iraq.
Kremlin
spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call that he could not
say whether the United States had notified Russia of its plans in advance,
adding that operational contacts were made through the military.
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2021/02/26/Russia-says-its-closely-monitoring-situation-in-Syria-following-US-airstrikes-
--------
Saudi
Arabia’s King Salman and US President Biden discuss regional security
February
26, 2021
RIYADH:
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and US President Joe Biden discussed regional and
global stability during a phone call on Thursday.
The
two leaders stressed the importance of strengthening the partnership between
the two countries and the depth of their historical relations, Saudi Press
Agency (SPA) reported.
During
the call, King Salman congratulated Biden on taking office last month.
The
talks dealt with the most important issues in the region and reviewed
developments of common interest, the report said.
The
two sides discussed Iran’s behavior in the region, its destabilizing activities
and its support for terrorist groups.
“King
Salman thanked the US president for Washington’s commitment to defend the
Kingdom against any threats and his assurance that Iran would not be allowed to
possess nuclear weapons,” SPA said.
Biden
commended the Kingdom’s support for UN efforts to reach a truce and a
cease-fire in Yemen.
King
Salman said the Kingdom was keen to reach a comprehensive political solution in
Yemen and to achieve security and development for the Yemeni people.
A
statement from the White House said the US president told King Salman he would
work to make the bilateral relationship as strong and transparent as possible.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1815986/saudi-arabia
--------
Iran’s
Zarif talks to Syrian FM after US strikes on Iran-backed militia in Syria
26
February ,2021
Iran’s
foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif spoke to his Syrian counterpart on
Friday, hours after US air strikes on Iran-backed militias in eastern Syria.
“The
two sides stressed the need of the West to adhere to UN Security Council
resolutions regarding Syria,” Iranian government website Dolat.ir said.
There
was no official comment yet from Syria on the air strikes conducted by the US
against facilities belonging to what the Pentagon said were Iran-backed.
The
strikes, which were first reported by Reuters, appeared to be limited in scope,
potentially lowering the risk of escalation.
Biden’s
decision to strike only in Syria and not in Iraq, at least for now, also gives
the Iraqi government some breathing room as it carries out its own
investigation of a Feb. 15 attack that wounded Americans.
“At
President (Joe) Biden’s direction, US military forces earlier this evening
conducted airstrikes against infrastructure utilized by Iranian-backed militant
groups in eastern Syria,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.
“President
Biden will act to protect American and Coalition personnel. At the same time,
we have acted in a deliberate manner that aims to de-escalate the overall
situation in both eastern Syria and Iraq,” Kirby said.
He
added that the strikes destroyed multiple facilities at a border control point
used by a number of Iranian-backed militant groups, including Kata’ib Hezbollah
(KH) and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (KSS).
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2021/02/26/Iran-s-Zarif-talks-to-Syrian-FM-after-US-strikes-on-Iran-backed-militia-in-Syria
--------
Bahrain’s
Crown Prince, Israeli PM say countries must be involved in Iran talks
25
February ,2021
Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Bahrain’s Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin
Hamad Al Khalifa on Thursday discussed Iran and the possible involvement of the
Gulf state in establishing a vaccine plant in Israel, the two countries said.
Bahrain
and the United Arab Emirates formalized ties with Israel on Sept. 15 in part
over shared concerns about Iran, in a deal forged by former US President Donald
Trump.
Trump
withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, a move
praised by Israel which has objected to the accord. His successor, President
Joe Biden, wants to rejoin the deal.
But
in the week since Washington offered to talk with Tehran about reviving the
nuclear deal, Iran has curbed UN monitoring and threatened to boost its uranium
enrichment. Tehran denies it is seeking nuclear weapons.
An
Israeli official said on Tuesday that Israel hopes to prevent personal tension
between Netanyahu, who is seeking re-election on March 23, and Biden over their
differences on Iran policy by delegating talks on the topic to their senior
staff.
Netanyahu
and Khalifa both released statements about their telephone call on Thursday but
only the Bahraini announcement mentioned Iran.
Their
conversation stressed the importance for the “countries of the region to take
part in any talks about Iran’s nuclear file,” the kingdom’s state media office
said on Twitter.
Netanyahu’s
office said he spoke with Khalifa about visiting Bahrain once coronavirus
restrictions would allow it.
“The
Bahraini regent also stated that he was interested in examining the possibility
of Bahrain joining an investment in a vaccine manufacturing plant that is
planned to be established in Israel together with other countries,” the
statement said.
Bahrain
and the United Arab Emirates formalized ties with Israel on Sept. 15, in a
US-sponsored deal forged in part over shared concerns about Iran.
Israel
expects trade with Bahrain to be around $220 million in 2021, not including
possible defense and tourism deals.
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2021/02/25/Iran-nuclear-deal-Bahrain-s-Crown-Prince-Israeli-PM-say-countries-must-be-involved-in-Iran-talks
--------
Arab
Coalition stops second Houthi attack on Saudi Arabia hours after failed attempt
Tamara
Abueish
26
February ,2021
The
Arab Coalition thwarted a second attack by the Iran-backed Houthi militia on
Saudi Arabia just hours after it had destroyed a drone that was launched by the
group towards the Kingdom’s Khamis Mushait.
The
Arab Coalition intercepted and destroyed a drone launched by the Iran-backed
Houthi militia towards Saudi Arabia’s Khamis Mushait, the coalition’s
spokesperson General Turki al-Maliki said on Friday.
“Joint
Coalition Forces have intercepted and destroyed this morning (Friday) a
bomb-laden UAV launched systematically and deliberately by the terrorist Houthi
militia to target civilians and civilian objects in (Khamis Mushait),”
al-Maliki said, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
“These
acts of aggression to deliberately and systematically target civilians and
civilian objects by the terrorist, Iran-backed Houthi militia amount to war
crimes.”
The
Arab Coalition said it would continue to take the necessary measures to protect
civilians in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in accordance with international
humanitarian law.
The
terrorist group has been ramping up its efforts to strike Saudi Arabia and
several areas in Yemen outside its control.
Iran
has been backing the Houthis in Yemen’s civil war against the
internationally-recognized government.
Currently,
the Houthis have control of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, while the government is
based in the city of Aden.
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/gulf/2021/02/26/Arab-Coalition-destroys-Houthi-drone-heading-towards-Saudi-Arabia-s-Khamis-Mushait
--------
Saudi
Foreign Minister discusses regional challenges with US counterpart
Ismaeel
Naar
25
February ,2021
Saudi
Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan spoke on the phone with US
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to a statement published by the
Saudi Press Agency.
“The
two sides discussed during the call bilateral relations and the strategic
partnership between the two countries, and reviewed aspects of cooperation on
regional and international challenges,” according to SPA.
Last
week, United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke with Saudi
Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and reaffirmed Washington’s
commitment to assisting the Kingdom in defending its borders, according to the
Pentagon.
Austin
condemned the recent cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia by Yemen’s
Iran-backed Houthis and thanked the Crown Prince for the Kingdom’s commitment
to a political settlement for Yemen’s six-year conflict, which the United
Nations says has created the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/gulf/2021/02/25/Saudi-Foreign-Minister-discusses-regional-challenges-with-US-counterpart
--------
Africa
Erdogan
named 2020 Global Muslim Personality
Felix
Tih
26.02.2021
Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been named the Global Muslim Personality by
a Nigerian Islamic newspaper for the third year in a row.
Erdogan
was declared winner of the 2020 Global Muslim Personality Award, tagged
#MNAwards2020, by Rasheed Abubakar, the publisher of Muslim News Nigeria.
The
maiden edition of the award was held in 2018 to celebrate Muslim achievers
across professions including governance and administration.
In
a statement, Abubakar said though the year 2020 was very challenging for the
world due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic which has affected all facets of
human endeavor, Erdogan remained committed to a just cause, and his
achievements surpassed that of the previous years.
The
statement noted that the emergence of the Turkish president as a visionary and
pragmatic leader has been a blessing not only to Turkey but to the extended
global Muslim community, which has “fallen prey to the belligerence of predator
nations.”
“From
cultivating and consolidating the national capabilities of the Turkish state
and its local economy, President Erdogan embarked on showing the world what it
is missing in the absence of Islamic standards in matters of human rights,
politics, and fairness, and equity in economic affairs,” it added.
The
statement said some of his achievements included the reopening of Hagia Sophia
mosque, liberation of Upper Karabakh region, provision of relief packages to
countries hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, humanitarian assistance to
marginalized Muslim communities, unwavering commitment to the Palestinian cause
and raising the voice against Islamophobia.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/erdogan-named-2020-global-muslim-personality/2157973
--------
Libyan
PM-designate Dbeibeh to propose unified cabinet under UN aegis
25
February ,2021
Libya’s
designated prime minister, chosen via a UN-facilitated process last month, will
on Thursday propose a unified government to the country’s divided parliament as
part of a peace plan.
The
new government is intended to replace Libya’s two rival administrations and
oversee the run-up to national elections planned for December in a roadmap to
end years of chronic chaos and violence.
However,
designated premier Abdulhamid Dbeibeh is not expected to announce the names of
ministers after a process of intense negotiations over recent weeks to form a
government that could win acceptance across front lines.
Libya,
a major North African oil and gas producer, has enjoyed little peace since the
2011 NATO-backed uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, and the sprawling country
has been split since 2014 between rival factions.
One
is the Government of National Accord (GNA) based in the capital Tripoli in
Libya’s west, while the east is controlled by an administration backed by
Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA).
Dbeibeh’s
new interim government is intended to replace both existing administrations.
Last
month, participants in a UN dialogue in Geneva selected Dbeibeh as prime
minister along with a three-member presidency council to act as head of state.
All four men have pledged not to stand for office in December’s election.
Dbeibeh’s
proposed cabinet will be put for approval to the House of Representatives, a
body that has been divided for years after some of its members broke off to
form a rival assembly.
House
of Representative members have been negotiating in recent days for a meeting to
discuss the proposed government that could take place in the frontline city of
Sirte.
Located
in the eastern city of Tobruk, the eastern-based House of Representatives is
headed by Aguila Saleh, one of the losing candidates in last month’s Geneva
selection process.
He,
along with other prominent losers in that vote such as GNA Interior Minister
Fathi Bashagha and GNA Defence Minister Saleh Namroush, have promised to abide
by the process.
Both
Dbeibeh and the new presidency council head Mohammed al-Menfi have travelled
inside Libya and met representatives from major foreign powers outside the
country.
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/north-africa/2021/02/25/Libyan-PM-designate-Dbeibeh-to-propose-unified-cabinet-under-UN-aegis
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Several
schoolchildren kidnapped in northwest Nigeria: State governor spokesperson
26
February ,2021
Unidentified
gunmen kidnapped a number of schoolgirls from the town of Jangebe in northwest
Nigeria early on Friday, a state spokesman said, the second such kidnapping in
little over a week.
It
was not immediately clear how many children had been seized, Sulaiman Tanau
Anka, information commissioner for Zamfara state, told Reuters.
For
all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
The
kidnapping took place about midnight, he said.
“Unknown
gunmen came shooting sporadically and took the girls away,” Anka said.
“Information available to me said they came with vehicles and moved the
students, they also moved some on foot,” Anka said.
Security
forces were hunting through the area, he added.
A
surge in armed militancy in the northwest has led to a breakdown of security in
the north of Africa’s most populous country.
Last
week, unidentified gunmen killed a student in an overnight attack on a boarding
school in the north-central state of Niger and kidnapped 42 people, including
27 students. The hostages are yet to be released.
Hundreds
of people have been killed in the north by criminal gangs carrying out
robberies and kidnappings. The country is also struggling to contain Islamist
insurgencies in the northeast and communal violence over grazing rights in
central states.
In
the most notorious kidnapping in Nigeria in recent years, Boko Haram militants
abducted 276 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok in Borno state in April 2014.
They were eventually rescued by security forces or escaped.
President
Muhammadu Buhari replaced his long-standing military chiefs earlier this month
amid worsening violence, with the armed forces fighting to reclaim northeastern
towns overrun by insurgents.
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/world/2021/02/26/Several-schoolchildren-kidnapped-in-northwest-Nigeria-State-governor-spokesperson-
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Europe
UK
Supreme Court rejects Daesh bride Shamima Begum’s legal bid to return
February
26, 2021
LONDON:
Britain’s highest court on Friday rejected a bid by a woman who was stripped of
her UK citizenship for joining the Daesh group to return to challenge the
decision.
Five
judges at the Supreme Court gave a unanimous decision in the case of Shamima
Begum, whose legal battles have come to be seen as a test of how countries
treat nationals who joined the extremists.
“Ms
Begum’s appeal against the leave to enter decision is dismissed,” the head of
the Supreme Court, judge Robert Reed, said in a written judgment.
The
judges said the right to a fair hearing did not override other considerations
such as the safety of the public.
“The
appropriate response to the problem in the present case is for the deprivation
appeal to be stayed until Ms Begum is in a position to play an effective part
in it without the safety of the public being compromised,” they added.
“That
is not a perfect solution, as it is not known how long it may be before that is
possible. But there is no perfect solution to a dilemma of the present kind.”
Now
21, Begum left her home in east London at the age of 15 to travel to Syria with
two school friends, and married a Daesh fighter.
In
2019 she told The Times newspaper that she did not regret traveling to Syria
and had not been “fazed” by seeing a severed head dumped in a bin.
Britain
revoked her citizenship in 2019 on national security grounds amid an outcry led
by right-wing newspapers.
Begum
is being held in a camp in poor conditions, while her husband is reportedly in
jail in Syria, and her three children have died.
She
appealed to be allowed back into the UK so that she can legally challenge her
loss of citizenship.
She
argued that the decision was unlawful as it has made her stateless and exposed
her to the risk of death or inhuman and degrading treatment.
Begum
is of Bangladeshi heritage but the country’s foreign minister has said he will
not consider granting her citizenship.
The
Court of Appeal ruled in July last year that Begum needed to come back to mount
a fair and effective appeal.
But
the interior ministry in turn appealed against this decision, insisting she
remained “aligned” with the proscribed terrorist organization.
A
government lawyer told the Supreme Court in November her return would create
“an increased risk of terrorism.”
Her
legal team argued that this did not override the need for a fair hearing.
Rights
groups have argued human rights principles are at stake and Begum should answer
for any crimes in her home country.
The
tabloid newspaper The Sun has called her a “vile fanatic” who has “no place on
our soil.”
Begum
claims she married a Dutch convert soon after arriving in Daesh-held territory.
She was discovered, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February
2019.
Her
newborn baby died soon after she gave birth. Her two other children also died
in infancy under Daesh rule.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1816221/world
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Palestinians
hire UK-based law firm to prosecute Britain over 1917 Balfour Declaration
25
February 2021
The
head of the Palestinian National Independent Assembly says a London-based law
firm has been hired to prosecute the British government over the 1917 Balfour
Declaration that paved the way for the creation of Israel.
Munib
al-Masri said in a Thursday statement that the Sunday decision by the Court of
First Instance in the northern occupied West Bank city of Nablus to declare the
document invalid is the first step to suing the British government in the UK
for violations committed during its mandate over Palestine.
The
Palestinian court also held Britain legally responsible for the consequences of
the Balfour Declaration, demanding an apology to the Palestinians.
The
lawsuit was filed by Palestinian lawyers in October last year on behalf of the
National Assembly of Independents, the International Foundation for the
Follow-up of the Rights of the Palestinian People, and the Palestinian
Journalists' Syndicate, against the British government.
“Britain
and its then foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, from whom the 'Balfour
Declaration' was issued at the time, neither owned Palestine nor did they have
the right to determine the fate of its people,” the court ruled.
Britain's
acts violate “the rules of international law, local laws, international norms
and the decisions of the United Nations League and the United Nations during
the period of its occupation of the Palestinian territories throughout the
period of the British Mandate, including its implementation of the Balfour
Declaration,” it said.
The
ruling said the declaration deprived “the Palestinian people of their legal,
human and political rights, and ... their right to self-determination on their
Palestinian lands.”
Masri
noted that there are plans to prosecute the British government to force it to
apologize to the Palestinian people for the calamities that have befallen them
as a result of the Balfour Declaration.
He
pointed out that the British government had previously apologized to India,
Cambodia, and Mau Mau people in Kenya and the State of Cyprus for the massacres
it had committed against them.
Masri
highlighted that Palestinian people are not inferior to the rest of the world,
and have the right to prosecute Britain or whoever causes harm to them and
deprives them of their right to self-determination.
The
Balfour Declaration came in the form of a letter from Britain’s then-foreign
secretary, Arthur Balfour, addressed to Lionel Walter Rothschild, a figurehead
of the British Jewish community. It was published on November 2, 1917.
The
declaration was made during World War I (1914-1918), and was included in the
terms of the British Mandate for Palestine after the dissolution of the Ottoman
Empire.
It
is widely seen as the precursor to the 1948 Palestinian Nakba, when Zionist
armed paramilitary groups, who were trained and created to fight side by side
with the British in World War II, forcibly expelled more than 750,000
Palestinians from their homeland, captured huge swathes of the Arab land, and
proclaimed existence of Israel.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2021/02/25/646048/Palestinians-hire-UK-based-law-firm-to-prosecute-Britain-over-1917-Balfour-Declaration
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UK’s
largest Muslim charity cleared of institutional anti-Semitism
26th
Feb 2021
Nadine
Osman
The
UK’s largest Muslim charity has been acquitted of institutional anti-Semitism
in an independent report after its reputation was badly damaged and government
funding suspended over the social media posts of two trustees and a senior
member of staff.
Islamic
Relief Worldwide (IRW), a global NGO with an annual income of about £130
million, was a “highly effective charity” performing “crucial humanitarian work
around the world,” said Chair of the Commission Dominic Grieve QC.
Importantly,
while the inquiry found concerns with the composition of the charity’s board of
directors and its organisational structure — which Islamic Relief has signalled
plans to address — Grieve did not find any evidence that the offensive views
articulated by the former senior director and two former trustees in any way
compromised the impartiality or integrity of the organization’s humanitarian
programmes.
“We
found absolutely no evidence that the reputational issues that have arisen over
the conduct of a few individuals has had any link to the way IRW carries out
this charitable work,” he said.
The
former Conservative Attorney General said there was no evidence of antisemitism
in the NGO. “On the contrary, the charity has made a lot of effort to ensure
there isn’t antisemitism, and I saw no evidence of it among staff whatsoever,”
he said. The charity had been “horrified” when it discovered that Tayeb Abdoun,
network and resource development director, had been tweeting antisemitic
material under an alias, and had acted swiftly to deal with the individual, the
commission concluded.
Abdoun
was forced to resign. A few months earlier, it was revealed that two trustees
had posted antisemitic comments on social media before they were appointed. A
new board of trustees was appointed soon afterwards.
Along
with the German and US governments, the UK Foreign Office suspended funding of
the charity. IRW, which was the only Muslim charity on the Disasters Emergency
Committee, withdrew from the body while the Charity Commission investigated.
Earlier
this month, the Charity Commission said it was “satisfied that [IRW] took swift
action, including to condemn the comments and ensure all three individuals left
their roles.”
It
added there had been “significant improvements to the recruitment and oversight
of trustees and senior staff at the charity.”
Grieve’s
report makes 19 recommendations to improve the charity’s governance, including
more non-Muslim and independent trustees, a better gender balance in the
organisation, updating its code of conduct and developing a new personal social
media policy.
IRW
said it was committed to fully implementing the report’s recommendations. Dr
Ihab Saad, Chair of IRW Board of Trustees, said, “We thank Mr Grieve and Sir
Clive for their report, the findings of which we accept in full. They have made
a number of valuable recommendations to ensure Islamic Relief Worldwide’s
trustees and other senior leaders uphold the highest standards and the values
that we expect. We believe the Commission’s advice will help us become an even
more effective humanitarian organisation going forward.”
Grieve
said he was confident that “IRW will emerge with governance that is suitable
for its purposes, puts it at the heart of the charities sector in the UK and
enables it to sustain its crucial humanitarian work around the world”.
Grieve
told The Muslim News “All charities must endeavour to ensure that the public
views expressed by trustees and staff are not incompatible with the charitable
purposes and thus at risk of causing the charity reputational damage. This
needs a clear social media policy linked to a code of conduct and where
necessary, a vetting process for social media. There is plenty of good practice
available.”
Asked
by The Muslim News why no stronger vetting procedure was already in place, a
spokesman said, “Some of the offensive social media posts were made many years
ago or under an alias, which makes it difficult to identify, and these
recommendations will help our existing processes be more stringent.”
IRW
say they “have been in regular dialogue with the Foreign Office throughout the
past few months and we look forward to continuing our close relationship going
forward… Now that the Charity Commission has closed its case and welcomed the
steps we have taken, and given that we have committed to following all the
recommendations made by the Independent Commission, we are hopeful that the
FCDO will soon resume funding.”
A
spokesperson for the Foreign Office said, “We are closely assessing the
findings from the independent commission and will make decisions with regard to
our relationship with this charity in due course.”
http://muslimnews.co.uk/newspaper/home-news/43767-2/
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