UAE and Bahrain Channels Share Live Broadcast with Israeli Channel for The First Time in History
New Age Islam News Bureau
17 September 2020
News channels from the
United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Israel share a live broadcast for the first
time in history. (Twitter)
-----
• Hospital Will Hold the Centre Stage on Ayodhya
Mosque Complex: Architect of The Mosque Complex in Ayodhya
• Pakistan Court Indicts 4 Close Aides of Hafiz Saeed
In Terror Financing Cases
• Afghan Peace Team Leader, Masoom Stanekzai, Calls
for Islamic Republic System to Be Upheld
• Pompeo Praises ‘Monumental’ Deal Between UAE,
Bahrain And Israel
• Sudan Says It Has Dismantled Terrorist Cell in
Khartoum, Seized Massive Explosives
• U.S. Military Seeks Authority to Expand Counterterrorism
Drone War to Kenya
• After 28 Years, 9 Serbs Held Over Bosnia Killings of
Muslims
Mideast
• UAE and Bahrain Channels Share Live Broadcast with
Israeli Channel for The First Time in History
• Rouhani Urges Betrayers of Palestine Not to Claim
Arabism
• Lawmaker: Iran to Restore Unlimited Peaceful N.
Industry If UNSC Sanctions Reinstated
• Iran: US, Defying N. Deal Parties Not Entitled to
Use Trigger Mechanism
• MP: Parliament to Require Gov’t to End All N. Deal
Undertakings If Trigger Mechanism Activated
• Turkish police detain over 100 people with alleged
ties to Gulen: Report
• Israeli aircraft strike Gaza after rocket barrage
from strip amid fallout over Arab normalization deals
• Fury in Palestine, Bahrain over ‘deals of shame’
with Israel
• Israeli jets bomb Gaza after rocket fire clouds
peace deal signing
--------
India
• Hospital Will Hold the Centre Stage on Ayodhya
Mosque Complex: Architect of The Mosque Complex in Ayodhya
• Islamic State Most Active in A Dozen Indian States,
Union Home Ministry Tells Rajya Sabha
• Babri mosque demolition case verdict on Sept 30; LK
Advani among 32 accused asked to be present
• Three terrorists, woman killed in encounter in
J&K
• J&K youth held for terror link found dead
--------
Pakistan
• Pakistan Court Indicts 4 Close Aides of Hafiz Saeed
In Terror Financing Cases
• If Pakistan Is Unwilling to Protect Its Shia
Citizens, They May Look to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
• Pakistan: Hardline Sunni groups on collision course
with Shiites
• Pakistan parliament passes three FATF related bills
amid opposition protests
• Stringent law to curb child abuse, rape on the cards
• IHC disposes of Nawaz’s appeal against order in
Al-Azizia case, for now
--------
South Asia
• Afghan Peace Team Leader, Masoom Stanekzai, Calls
for Islamic Republic System to Be Upheld
• Discussing Cause of War Determines Peace in
Afghanistan: Taliban Spokesman
• Taliban Tell Afghan Government They Have No Aim to
Seize Power
• Pompeo: Less than 200 Al Qaeda Left in Afghanistan
--------
Arab world
• Pompeo Praises ‘Monumental’ Deal Between UAE, Bahrain
And Israel
• How The Islamic State Found A Haven In Syrian Desert
• Iraq, counter-IS coalition kill, capture Islamic
State figures
• Syria calls US ‘rogue state’ over Trump remark on
wanting to kill al-Assad
• Rocket attack on Baghdad’s Green Zone housing US
embassy: Reports
• Lebanon hits bottom of barrel credit rating as
government formation flounders
--------
Africa
• Sudan Says It Has Dismantled Terrorist Cell in Khartoum,
Seized Massive Explosives
• Libya east-based force: 7 militants, foreign
fighters killed
• Nigeria's 3rd Place in Global Terrorism Ranking
Disappointing, Says APC Group
• Al-Shabab growing more emboldened in targeting US troops
--------
North America
• U.S. Military Seeks Authority to Expand
Counterterrorism Drone War to Kenya
• US will do all it needs to do to ensure Iran
sanctions enforced: Pompeo
• US Secretary Pompeo criticizes France for policy on
Iran, Hezbollah
• NJ man admits to supporting foreign terrorist
organization
• Hundreds gather to honour man stabbed to death
outside Toronto mosque
--------
Europe
• After 28 Years, 9 Serbs Held Over Bosnia Killings of
Muslims
• UK repatriates British child from Syria despite ISIS
policy
• Turkey open to ‘constructive’ talks but determined
on east Med, Erdogan tells Merkel
• EU chief pledges to defend Cyprus rights in Turkey
standoff
• France Arrests Four Ex-Directors Of Shia Zahra Centre
Founded By Hezbollah Supporter
• Palestinian doctor caught in ‘dirty squabble’
between MI5 and New IRA
• Explosives accused 'interested in white supremacy'
--------
Southeast Asia
• Muhyiddin unveils Perikatan-led Opposition manifesto
that aims to address Sabah’s woes
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/uae-bahrain-channels-share-live/d/122876
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UAE and Bahrain Channels Share Live Broadcast with Israeli Channel for The First Time in History
16 September 2020
News channels from the
United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Israel share a live broadcast for the first
time in history. (Twitter)
-----
News channels from the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain
and Israel shared a live broadcast for the first time in history after the two
Arab Gulf states signed treaties normalizing ties with Israel on Tuesday.
“After the signing of the peace deal between the
United Arab Emirates and Israel, we witness the first TV broadcast of its kind
between an Emirati channel, Dubai TV, an Israeli channel, Channel 12, and a
Bahraini channel, Bahrain TV,” Dubai TV presenter Mohammed al-Kaabi said at the
start of the broadcast.
A signing ceremony for the US-brokered peace deals was
held in Washington, DC on Tuesday at the White House.
“Welcome. From the White House garden to the Middle
East, the wind of peace is blowing in this important day in the Arab-Israeli
conflict. For the first time in history, a live broadcast from Israeli Channel
12 and the official channels of the UAE, Dubai TV, and Bahrain TV. We send you
peace from Jerusalem,” Israeli news anchor Yonit Levi said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed
agreements with Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan
and Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani.
The UAE was the first Gulf country, and the third in
the Arab world, to normalize ties with Israel, and Bahrain announced shortly
after it would follow the UAE’s lead.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/09/16/First-of-its-kind-UAE-Bahrain-channels-share-live-broadcast-with-Israeli-channel
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Hospital Will Hold the Centre Stage on Ayodhya Mosque
Complex: Architect of The Mosque Complex in Ayodhya
Sep 16, 2020
Jamia Millia Islamia’s
Architecture Department dean Professor SM Akhtar.
-----
Founder Dean, Faculty of Architecture & Ekistics,
Jamia Millia Islamia, Prof SM Akhtar, who has been appointed architect of the
mosque complex in Ayodhya smashes the stereotype of mosques with huge domes and
minarets, saying legacies of Muslim rulers don’t define Islamic architecture.
Speaking to Arshad Afzaal Khan, he said, the design of the new mosque will meet
modern-day challenges and the centre will be uphold the Islamic essence of
selfless service to humanity
Q: What’s uppermost in your mind as you execute the
design of the mosque complex on 5acre land in Ayodhya in lieu of Babri masjid?
Will the hospital hold centrestage or the mosque?
A: The new mosque will be bigger than Babri masjid,
but won’t be a lookalike of the structure which once stood in Ramjanmabhoomi
premises. The hospital of course will hold centrestage on 5acre land allotted
to Sunni Waqf Board at Dhannipur village in Ayodhya. The hospital will serve
humanity in the true spirit of Islam as taught by the prophet in his last
sermon 1400 years ago. It won’t be a usual concrete structure, but will be in sync
with the architecture of the mosque, replete with calligraphy and Islamic
symbols and will house a 300-bed speciality unit, where doctors will work with
missionary zeal to provide free treatment to the ailing.
Q: What would be the tentative design of the mosque?
Islam is characterized by simplicity and strictness. Will these two
characteristics reflect on the architecture or would you replicate the grandeur
and style of mosques or monuments built by Muslim rulers of India?
A: We don't want our present generation to live in the
past. The mosque design will contemporary and modern and we won’t imbibe or
replicate the architectural legacy of any Muslim ruler. The Masjid-e-Haram or
Khaana-e-Kaaba has no minarets or domes, yet it symbolises the true spirit of Islam.
The Ayodhya mosque design will be hammered out to meet modern-day challenges
will not be symbolized by domes and minarets. Architecture cannot be replicated
or stereotyped. How can only medieval architecture symbolise Islam, which is
global and always relevant? The monumental legacy of Mughal, Persian or other
Muslim dynasty rulers cannot be strictly defined as Islamic architecture. What
we will build today should be relevant for centuries to come. Only one thing is
important, the direction (qibla) of the mosque should be towards Kaaba and
funds should ‘halaal’ (legal).
Q: Could you elaborate on the concept of contemporary
architecture?
A: A mosque in Udupi, Karnataka, has a modern
structure powered by solar energy and there’s one in Qatar in the shape of a
space ship. Now, would you say this fits into the Islamic stereotype? That’s
being contemporary. But there will be a ‘jhalak & jhapak’ (reflection) of
Sufism as Islam was spread in India by Sufi saints. The underlying philosophy
of the centre at Dhannipur will be to serve, heal, feed and teach people
without differentiating on religion caste or creed.
Q: Can you shed light on the museum and archive, which
will be part of the mosque complex?
A: The master plan will be designed to house an
archive, museum and community kitchen in the mosque complex. The archive and
museum will exhibit contribution of Muslims to nation building, Indian culture
and freedom struggle and of course Sufi saints who spread love and harmony.
Q: How will the centre reach out to society and bridge
differences?
A: The centre will uphold the true essence of Islam
and erase misconceptions about our religion so that people across religions can
approach us and we can serve and heal humanity.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/hospital-will-hold-the-centrestage-on-ayodhya-mosque-complex/articleshow/78145109.cms
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Pakistan Court Indicts 4 Close Aides Of Hafiz Saeed In
Terror Financing Cases
Sep 16, 2020
Hafiz Saeed leader of the
banned Jamaat-ud-Dawa
-----
LAHORE: An anti-terrorism court in Pakistan on
Wednesday indicted four top leaders of the banned Jamaat-ud-Dawah (JuD),
including the brother-in-law of Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed, in four
more cases of terror financing.
"Terror financing charges were framed on Hafiz
Abdul Rehman Makki (brother-in-law of Saeed), Yahya Mujahid (JuD spokesperson),
Zafar Iqbal and Muhammad Ashraf in four more cases,” a court official told PTI
after the hearing.
The suspects were brought to the ATC-III amid high
security from the Kot Lakhpat Jail. The official said judge Ijaz Ahmad Buttar
directed the prosecution to present witnesses on next hearing on Thursday.
Last month, the ATC Lahore handed down over 16 years
imprisonment to Zafar Iqbal and Hafiz Abdus Salam and one-and-a-half-year
sentence to Makki in another terror financing case.
In February, Saeed was sentenced to a jail term of 11
years on terror finance charges by the ATC of Lahore. The court sentenced Saeed
and his close aide Zafar Iqbal to five-and-a-half years each in two cases. A
total of 11 years sentence will run concurrently.
Saeed is serving his term in Lahore's Kot Lakhpat
jail. He was arrested in July last year.
The Counterterrorism Department of Punjab police had registered
23 FIRs against Saeed and his accomplices for terror financing in different
cities of the province.
Saeed-led JuD is the front organisation for
Lashkar-e-Taiba which is responsible for carrying out the 2008 Mumbai attack
that killed 166 people, including six Americans.
The US named Saeed as a Specially Designated Global
Terrorist, and the US, since 2012, has offered a $10-million reward for
information that brings Saeed to justice.
He was listed as a terrorist under the UN Security
Council Resolution 1267 in December 2008.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/pakistan-court-indicts-4-close-aides-of-hafiz-saeed-in-terror-financing-cases/articleshow/78153331.cms
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Afghan Peace Team Leader, Masoom Stanekzai, Calls for
Islamic Republic System to Be Upheld
September 16, 2020
In their first formal session on Tuesday evening, the
Afghan peace negotiating team leader, Masoom Stanekzai emphasized the
importance of the current democratic system in the country, but still keeping
it within the framework of an Islamic Republic.
In his speech to all negotiating team members, from
both the Afghan delegation and the Taliban team, he said the war in Afghanistan
has been imposed on the people, who for decades have had to sacrifice their
lives.
He stated that today’s Afghanistan, from a social,
economic, humanitarian and human rights point of view, is witnessing
fundamental changes and has a system with broad foundations and strong
infrastructure in which the rights and freedoms of all citizens of the country
are protected based on Islamic beliefs and values.
He made it clear that the governing system of
Afghanistan was recognized by all countries around the world, unlike during the
Taliban’s regime. He said during Taliban rule, “this country was in complete
isolation of the international community.”
Stanekzai also stated that enormous strides had been
made in the field of education – specifically in Islamic education.
“In addition to the construction and renovation of
hundreds of mosques and the strengthening of Islamic teachings in educational
institutions in the country, more than one thousand religious centers,
including madrassas, and Darul Uloom (Islamic University) have been
established.
He said: “The system of republic and the existing
constitution of the country is the connecting point of our nation.”
He also said the current constitutional law, passed by
the highest and most important decision-making body, the Loya Jirga, has no
precedent in the history of the country.
“This law is one of the most authoritative laws in
terms of Islamic values, both at the regional level and in comparison with the
eight constitutional laws that make Islam the religion of the state,” he said.
Stanekzai said peace does not have to lead to the
destruction of existing structures, but it should instead revive, reform and
strengthen structures within the framework of the Islamic system, which has
regional and global credibility.
Noting the high death toll that years of conflict has
inflicted on the country, he said “who killed more or less is not debatable at
all. The important question is why and for what crime are Afghans being
killed?”
He asked all negotiators to look at all the grievances
and problems in the country and come to an understanding that will end the war
and work for the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
He said the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is
committed to achieving lasting peace and has proved it in its actions.
“As you know, one of the key secrets to the success of
negotiations is a strong commitment to peace and both sides must have a common
understanding to achieve peace. If this principle does not exist, then no matter
how hard we try, peace will not be possible,” he said.
“It is natural for each side in the negotiations to
insist on its own principles, values and aspirations and try to get the most
out of its demands on the other side. But we must also keep in mind that our
demands, based on past experiences, are only for the sake of Allah and the
country, not for personal gain.”
Reiterating calls for an end to violence, Stanekzai
said: “The biggest and most important priority of our people is to stop the
bloodshed in the country,” adding that the Afghan population was putting all
its hope in the hand of negotiators to end the killing and suffering.
In conclusion, he stated that in respect of the
withdrawal of foreign troops, the security and safety of the people must be
taken seriously “and we must have a comprehensive dialogue on this issue.”
https://ariananews.af/peace-team-leader-calls-for-islamic-republic-system-to-be-upheld/
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Pompeo praises ‘monumental’ deal between UAE, Bahrain
and Israel
Joseph Haboush
16 September 2020
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo Wednesday praised
the “monumental accomplishment of the Abraham Accords” during a meeting with
the Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, in
Washington.
“The Secretary commended the Foreign Minister for the
monumental accomplishment of the Abraham Accords and thanked him for his
participation in the White House signing ceremony,” a statement from Pompeo’s
office said.
For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
The UAE announced its deal to normalize ties with
Israel last month before Bahrain followed suit last week.
Tuesday’s deal means that four Arab states now
recognize Israel after Egypt and Jordan signed peace treaties in 1979 and 1994.
Pompeo and al-Nahyan also discussed the need to work
to “continue countering Iran’s malign influence in the region,” the statement
from Pompeo’s office said.
“They discussed regional and bilateral issues of
concern, including the need to overcome divisions between Gulf countries,” the
statement added.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2020/09/17/Pompeo-praises-monumental-deal-between-UAE-Bahrain-and-Israel
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Sudan says it has dismantled terrorist cell in
Khartoum, seized massive explosives
16 September 2020
Sudanese authorities have dismantled a terrorist cell
in Khartoum that had vast amounts of explosives which could threaten
neighboring countries, said Sudan’s Attorney General on Wednesday.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
The explosives seized from the terrorist cell were
sufficient to blow up Khartoum, the attorney general said in a press
conference, adding that the seized materials were similar to those that
exploded in the port of Beirut in August.
Beirut's port was devastated after 2,750 tons of
ammonium nitrate caught fire, causing a massive explosion that killed at least
190 people and injured thousands more.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/09/16/Sudan-says-it-has-dismantled-terrorist-cell-in-Khartoum-seized-massive-explosives
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U.S. Military Seeks Authority to Expand
Counterterrorism Drone War to Kenya
By Eric Schmitt and Charlie Savage
Sept. 15, 2020
WASHINGTON — The U.S. military’s Africa Command is
pressing for new authorities to carry out armed drone strikes targeting
Qaeda-linked Shabab fighters in portions of eastern Kenya, potentially
expanding the war zone across the border from their sanctuaries in Somalia,
according to four American officials.
The new authorities, which must still be approved by
Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and then President Trump, do not necessarily
mean the United States will start carrying out drone attacks in Kenya.
Nevertheless, they would give Africa Command permission under certain
circumstances to expand the counterterrorism drone war into another country.
The push for the expanded authorities traces back to a
Shabab attack in January on a military base in Kenya that housed United States
troops, the officials said. The attack on the airfield at Manda Bay killed
three Americans and caused millions of dollars in damage.
U.S. commanders scrambled immediately after that
attack to track and kill the Shabab hit team that had infiltrated the base from
Somalia, securing permission on the fly to carry out a drone strike on them in
Kenyan territory, according to the officials. But they never attacked because
the militants — retreating to Somali territory — eluded them.
As they confronted the fallout from the debacle,
officials recognized that they lacked guidelines to conduct drone strikes in
Kenya should Shabab attack there again. The Pentagon led an interagency push to
write rules for any future strikes in Kenya under more relaxed limits on drone
strikes that Mr. Trump’s national security team created in 2017, replacing more
stringent procedures from the Obama era.
Col. Christopher P. Karns, the command’s chief
spokesman, declined to comment on the new authorities. “Africom certainly
recognizes the need to apply consistent international pressure on Al-Shabab and
to monitor their activity, presence, and actively confront them in order to
prevent their spread,” he said in an email. “This can take several forms.”
Lt. Col. Anton T. Semelroth, a Pentagon spokesman,
added in an email, “The U.S. military will defend U.S. personnel, citizens and
homeland as necessary anywhere in the world.” He also did not address the new
guidelines.
But according to the officials, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity, the draft guidelines would theoretically authorize not
only drone strikes in self-defense of American troops or collective
self-defense of partnered Kenyan forces, but also offensive strikes intended to
pre-empt a suspected threat — like if officials uncovered intelligence about
preparations at a compound to assemble a car bomb.
Several officials noted, however, that Kenya has a
stable government and capable security forces. As a result, the officials did
not expect the authorities to prompt the United States to carry out frequent
drone strikes there, if any. Still, they said they could envision a situation
in which a drone would be the only realistic option to try to pre-empt a
terrorist operation.
The draft plan was said to contain limitations. Among
them, the military would be permitted to conduct strikes only in a portion of
Kenya, two officials said. One specifically identified the potential strike
zone as Garissa and Lamu Counties, which encompass the air strip camp at Manda
Bay and the nearby border region with Somalia.
Moreover, the Kenyan government would have to consent
to any strike — a major difference from Somalia, whose provisional government
has essentially given the United States blanket permission to carry out strikes
when it sees fit. The American military would also have to consult with the
U.S. ambassador in Kenya.
In addition to the military’s desire for expanded
authorities, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya asked Mr. Trump during a White
House visit in February for additional counterterrorism assistance, including
“armed aerial support” to help combat the Shabab, a senior American official
said.
The Kenyan Embassy in Washington did not immediately
respond on Tuesday to requests for comment.
Mr. Esper, who has been weighing cuts to American
troops on the continent as part of a global reshuffling of forces to address
new threats from China and Russia, initially expressed reluctance to approve
the new authorities, officials said.
But he relented to the narrowly focused guidelines
rather than be seen as rejecting an important force-protection measure favored
by his field commanders, officials said.
Still, some American lawmakers complained on Tuesday
that Congress had been cut out of the process.
“We need to do whatever’s necessary to defend American
lives and interests, but that doesn’t require starting a drone war in Kenya
without consulting Congress and using a war authorization that’s two decades
old,” said Representative Eliot L. Engel, Democrat of New York and the chairman
of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, referring to the 2001 law Congress
passed authorizing strikes against Al Qaeda.
The Shabab, Al Qaeda’s largest and most active global
affiliate, has in recent months issued specific new threats against Americans
in East Africa and even the United States. After a hiatus this year, it has
increased a campaign of car bombings in Somalia, American counterterrorism and
intelligence officials said.
Several ominous signs indicate that the Shabab is
seeking to expand its lethal mayhem well beyond its home base and attack
Americans wherever it can — threats that prompted a flurry of American drone
strikes in Somalia this year to try to snuff out the plotters.
“Al Shabab is the most capable terrorist group on the
African continent,” Rear Adm. Heidi Berg, the Africa Command’s director of
intelligence, told reporters on Friday.
Shabab fighters have consolidated positions in the
Juba River valley in southern Somalia to create “a de facto safe haven” where
terrain and other factors prevent American troops from hunting them down, Maj.
Gen. Dagvin R.M. Anderson, who commands American Special Operations forces in
Africa, said last week.
“What that has allowed them to do is develop their
planning, develop their finance, develop their media operations there to a high
degree,” General Anderson told a virtual security conference held by the
American Enterprise Institute last week.
This month, three Somali military officers were killed
and two others were injured along with an American service member in a truck
bombing in the Jana Abdalle area in the Lower Juba region of Somalia.
In recent years, the Shabab, which American intelligence
analysts estimate has 5,000 to 10,000 fighters, has lost many of the cities and
villages they once controlled. Despite facing a record number of American drone
strikes, the group has morphed into a more nimble and lethal outfit, carrying
out large-scale attacks against civilian and military targets across Somalia
and neighboring countries.
To weaken the Shabab’s presence, Somali forces work
alongside troops from the African Union peacekeeping operations, which include
forces from Kenya, Djibouti, Burundi, Uganda and Ethiopia. Kenya, in
particular, has been a frequent target of Shabab retaliatory attacks.
“Al Shabab remained intent on and capable of
conducting attacks inside Kenya and along the Somalia-Kenya border, consistent
with its stated intent to compel Kenyan forces to withdraw from Somalia,” an
interagency inspectors general report released on Sept. 1 concluded.
Shabab militants in early 2019 assaulted a
hotel-shopping complex in Nairobi, Kenya, killing at least 21 people, including
a police officer. Six years earlier, masked gunmen stormed the upscale Westgate
Shopping Mall in the Kenyan capital, in a rampage that killed at least 67
people.
But the brazen assault on Jan. 5 at Manda Bay, a
sleepy seaside base near the Somali border, took American and Kenyan troops by
surprise. Armed with rifles and explosives, about a dozen Shabab fighters
destroyed an American surveillance plane as it was taking off and ignited an
hourslong gunfight.
Many of the local Kenyan forces, assigned to defend
the base, hid in the grass while other American troops and support staff were
corralled into tents with little protection to wait out the battle, American
officials said.
The deaths of the three Americans — one Army soldier
and two Pentagon contractors — were the largest number of United States
military-related fatalities in Africa since four soldiers were killed in an
ambush in Niger in October 2017.
The attack set in motion the push by the Africa
Command and some Pentagon officials for the new authorities to protect the
roughly 200 American soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines, as well as about
100 Pentagon civilian employees and contractors, in Kenya helping train and
assist local forces. Most of them work at Manda Bay, according to military
officials.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/15/us/politics/shabab-drone-authorities-kenya.html?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1528355_
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After 28 years, 9 Serbs held over Bosnia killings of
Muslims
September 16, 2020
SARAJEVO: Bosnian police arrested nine ethnic Serbs on
Wednesday suspected of taking part in the killings of 44 Muslim civilians in a
village at the start of the 1990s war, prosecutors said.
The nine men, mostly former soldiers and two police
commanders, are suspected of having “planned, organised and taken part” in the
killings and persecution of Muslim civilians in the area of Sokolac in eastern
Bosnia in September 1992, a prosecutors’ statement said.
When the Bosbian Serb army attacked the village of
Novoseoci, men were separated from women and children before being taken to a
rubbish dump and shot, the statement said.
The victims, aged between 14 and 82, were buried there
while women and children were expelled from the village.
After the executions, a village mosque was destroyed
and its debris brought to the dump and thrown over the victims’ remains.
All but one of the victims, which include one woman,
were exhumed and identified after the 1992-1995 war.
Former Bosnian Serb general Radislav Krstic, serving a
35-year jail term handed down by a UN court for his role in the 1995 Srebrenica
genocide, is also a suspect in the case and will be questioned, the statement
said.
Another suspect is currently in Canada and his
extradition will be sought, it added.
Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war between its Croats, Muslims and
Serbs claimed some 100,000 lives.
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/world/2020/09/16/after-28-years-9-serbs-held-over-bosnia-killings-of-muslims/
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Mideast
Rouhani
Urges Betrayers of Palestine Not to Claim Arabism
Sep
16, 2020
"There
are some countries in the region whose people are Muslims and religious but
their rulers do not understand religion, the rules of religion and do not care
about their debt towards the Palestinian people,” Rouhani said on Wednesday.
“They
claim to be Arabs! In Palestine, the Zionists' crime is on the rise, how did
you shake hands with the Zionist regime and are going to give a base to
Zionists in your country?" he added.
"You
are responsible for all the future consequences that may occur. You have done
these things contrary to the regulations and security of the region," he
warned the regional Arab rulers, a reference to the Bahraini and UAE rulers.
US
President Donald Trump tweeted the news of the Israel-Bahrain normalization
deal on Friday after he spoke by phone to Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al
Khalifa and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Following
the announcement at the White House, Palestinian officials condemned the
Israel-Bahrain normalization deal announced by US President Donald Trump as
another "stab in the back" by an Arab state.
Friday's
accord normalizing diplomatic ties between Israel and Bahrain comes one month
after the United Arab Emirates (UAE) agreed to normalize ties with Israel under
a US-brokered deal.
On August
13, President Trump announced a deal brokered by his government between Israel
and the UAE which he said would lead to full normalization of ties between the
two.
Critics
see the deal as the latest attempt by Trump to save his presidential campaign against
the Democrat Joe Biden.
In
relevant remarks on Tuesday, Iranian Government Spokesman Ali Rabiyee said
normalization of ties with Israel is a strategic mistake, stressing that any
kind of insecurity in the region will be seen from now on by Tehran as to be
the outcome of this compromise deal.
“It
is a strategic mistake to normalize ties with Israel and the responsibility for
all the consequences of the action falls on the Bahraini government and any
government that has compromised,” Rabiyee said.
“Iran
considers the Zionist regime's interference in the region as a threat,” he
noted.
“The
oppressed people of Palestine and Muslims who have lived with the Palestinian
cause will not allow any normalization of relations,” the spokesman continued.
Also
on Tuesday, Iranian Lawmaker Ebrahim Azizi said the recent compromise deal
inked by Manama and Abu Dhabi with Israel has humiliated the two Arab regimes,
adding that Bahrain and the UAE have slaughtered the Palestinian cause at the
behest of Washington.
“The
normalization of ties with Israel is equal to humiliation,” Azizi said, and
noted, "Unfortunately, Bahrain and the UAE have sacrificed the goals and
aspirations of the Palestinian people to the oppressive demands of the US and
its rulers."
“It
is a betrayal of interests [of Islamic Ummah] and lack of commitment to the
Muslim Ummah and its leaders,” he added.
"The
United States is taking such steps to save itself from the crises it is facing
and its tarnished image in the world," Azizi stressed.
The
MP said that Trump has engineered the compromise deal to prevent the decline of
the child-killing Israeli regime and also save face for himself before the
upcoming presidential elections.
He
reiterated that Iran will support every measure in favor of the Resistance
Axis.
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990626000994
--------
Lawmaker:
Iran to Restore Unlimited Peaceful N. Industry If UNSC Sanctions Reinstated
Sep
16, 2020
“If
the US succeeds in automatically returning the sanctions, then there will be
left nothing called the nuclear deal and certainly, the Islamic Republic of
Iran will discard the undertakings it was implementing under the nuclear deal,”
Zohreh Elahian told FNA on Wednesday.
“The
parliament is determined to give up the Islamic Republic of Iran’s undertakings
under the nuclear deal in case the sanctions are reinstated on Saturday and our
country’s peaceful nuclear industry will again continue its activities without
limitations of the nuclear deal,” she added.
Earlier
today, a senior Iranian legislator had also warned the US and Europe that
activation of the trigger mechanism against Iran will force the government to
withdraw from all its undertakings based on the nuclear deal.
“We
caution the enemy that if it wants to activate this mechanism, certainly the
revolutionary parliament will require the government to drop all its
undertakings based on the nuclear deal, including the Additional Protocol (to
the Non-Proliferation Treaty),” Seyed Jalil Mir-Mohammadi said, addressing an
open session of the parliament in Tehran on Wednesday.
He
also called on the lawmakers to more seriously pursue approval of the
triple-urgency bill which requires the government to adopt reciprocal measures
against the US and European states’ collaboration at the UN Security Council
against Tehran.
Another
Iranian MP had also on Tuesday declared preparation of the parliament to
approve the triple-urgency bill.
“The
Europeans are playing a hypocritical game about the US attempts to activate the
trigger mechanism and their declared policies are different from what they do,”
Nasrollah Pejmanfar said, addressing an open session of the parliament.
He
noted that the parliament should study the bad cop and good cop game launched
by the US and the Europeans against Iran more thoroughly.
“The
parliament has prepared a triple-urgency bill in this regard to adopt
appropriate actions against the Europeans and Americans’ mischievous
collaboration,” Pejmanfar said.
US
President Donald Trump, a stern critic of the historic deal, unilaterally
pulled Washington out of the JCPOA in May 2018, and unleashed the “toughest
ever” sanctions against the Islamic Republic in defiance of global criticism in
an attempt to strangle the Iranian oil trade, but to no avail since its
"so-called maximum pressure policy" has failed to push Tehran to the
negotiating table.
In
response to the US’ unilateral move, Tehran has so far rowed back on its nuclear
commitments four times in compliance with Articles 26 and 36 of the JCPOA, but
stressed that its retaliatory measures will be reversible as soon as Europe
finds practical ways to shield the mutual trade from the US sanctions.
Tehran
has particularly been disappointed with failure of the three European
signatories to the JCPOA -- Britain, France and Germany -- to protect its
business interests under the deal after the United States' withdrawal.
On
January 5, Iran took a final step in reducing its commitments, and said it
would no longer observe any operational limitations on its nuclear industry,
whether concerning the capacity and level of uranium enrichment, the volume of
stockpiled uranium or research and development.
Now
the US has stepped up attempts aimed at extending the UN arms ban on Iran that
is set to expire as part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),
which has been endorsed by Security Council Resolution 2231.
The
US first sought to extend the Iran's arms embargo in a fresh UNSC resolution in
contradiction to the contents of the Resolution 2231 in two attempts within a
month, but failed.
The
United Nations Security Council resoundingly rejected last month the second US
bid to extend an arms embargo on Iran, which is due to expire in October.
The
resolution needed support from nine of 15 votes to pass. Eleven members
abstained, including France, Germany and Britain, while the US and the
Dominican Republic were the only “yes” votes.
The
United States has become isolated over Iran at the Security Council following
President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the multilateral Iran nuclear deal
2018.
Iran
had said that the US resolution would fail to gain the required support at the
Security Council, pointing out that Washington has no legal right to invoke a
snapback mechanism to reinstate sanctions against Tehran under the 2015 nuclear
deal that the US unilaterally left in May 2018.
In
relevant remarks in August, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said
it is by no means justifiable for the US to use Dispute Resolution Mechanism
with regard to UNSC Resolution 2231.
"US
recourse to Dispute Resolution Mechanism in 2231 has NO LEG TO STAND ON,"
Zarif wrote on his Twitter page late Sunday.
"AmbJohnBolton
has repeated today what he said on May 8, 2018, while National Security Advisor
in the Trump administration," he noted, adding, "At least he is
consistent—a trait notably absent in this US administration."
Zarif'
tweet came in reaction to former US National Security Advisor John Bolton's
article in Wall Street Journal where he criticized US' decision to trigger
‘snapback mechanism’ against Iran, saying, "The agreement [Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action]’s backers argue that Washington, having withdrawn
from the deal, has no standing to invoke its provisions. They’re right. It’s
too cute by half to say we’re in the nuclear deal for purposes we want but not
for those we don’t."
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990626000946
--------
Iran:
US, Defying N. Deal Parties Not Entitled to Use Trigger Mechanism
Sep
16, 2020
“The
reality is simple. The US is not a member of the nuclear deal to use the
so-called snapback mechanism against Iran; even if the US were a member of the
nuclear deal, it could not do the snapback without implementing its nuclear
deal undertakings with a good will,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohsen
Baharvand said, addressing a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) Board of Governors in Vienna on Wednesday.
He
added that if the members of the international community strongly stand against
the US unilateral policies, the nuclear deal and related inspections carried
out by the IAEA of Iran can continue.
“No
one can expect my country to comply with all its nuclear deal undertakings
without enjoying the rights emphasized in the agreement,” Baharvand said.
He
also called on the EU, specially the three European members of the nuclear deal
(Britain, France and Germany), to fully act upon their undertakings under the
nuclear deal.
Iranian
officials have warned that if the UN sanctions resolutions waived under the
nuclear deal are reinstated as a result of the US trigger mechanism, Tehran
would not hesitate to end the agreement.
A
senior Iranian legislator on Wednesday warned the US and Europe that activation
of the trigger mechanism against Iran will force the government to withdraw
from all its undertakings based on the nuclear deal.
“We
caution the enemy that if it wants to activate this mechanism, certainly the
revolutionary parliament will require the government to drop all its
undertakings based on the nuclear deal, including the Additional Protocol (to
the Non-Proliferation Treaty),” Seyed Jalil Mir-Mohammadi said, addressing an
open session of the parliament in Tehran.
He
also called on the lawmakers to more seriously pursue approval of the
triple-urgency bill which requires the government to adopt reciprocal measures
against the US and European states’ collaboration at the UN Security Council
against Tehran.
Another
Iranian MP had also on Tuesday declared preparation of the parliament to
approve the triple-urgency bill.
“The
Europeans are playing a hypocritical game about the US attempts to activate the
trigger mechanism and their declared policies are different from what they do,”
Nasrollah Pejmanfar said, addressing an open session of the parliament.
He
noted that the parliament should study the bad cop and good cop game launched
by the US and the Europeans against Iran more thoroughly.
“The
parliament has prepared a triple-urgency bill in this regard to adopt
appropriate actions against the Europeans and Americans’ mischievous
collaboration,” Pejmanfar said.
US
President Donald Trump, a stern critic of the historic deal, unilaterally
pulled Washington out of the JCPOA in May 2018, and unleashed the “toughest
ever” sanctions against the Islamic Republic in defiance of global criticism in
an attempt to strangle the Iranian oil trade, but to no avail since its
"so-called maximum pressure policy" has failed to push Tehran to the
negotiating table.
In
response to the US’ unilateral move, Tehran has so far rowed back on its
nuclear commitments four times in compliance with Articles 26 and 36 of the
JCPOA, but stressed that its retaliatory measures will be reversible as soon as
Europe finds practical ways to shield the mutual trade from the US sanctions.
Tehran
has particularly been disappointed with failure of the three European
signatories to the JCPOA -- Britain, France and Germany -- to protect its
business interests under the deal after the United States' withdrawal.
On
January 5, Iran took a final step in reducing its commitments, and said it
would no longer observe any operational limitations on its nuclear industry,
whether concerning the capacity and level of uranium enrichment, the volume of
stockpiled uranium or research and development.
Now
the US has stepped up attempts aimed at extending the UN arms ban on Iran that
is set to expire as part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),
which has been endorsed by Security Council Resolution 2231.
The
US first sought to extend the Iran's arms embargo in a fresh UNSC resolution in
contradiction to the contents of the Resolution 2231 in two attempts within a
month, but failed.
The
United Nations Security Council resoundingly rejected last month the second US
bid to extend an arms embargo on Iran, which is due to expire in October.
The
resolution needed support from nine of 15 votes to pass. Eleven members
abstained, including France, Germany and Britain, while the US and the
Dominican Republic were the only “yes” votes.
The
United States has become isolated over Iran at the Security Council following
President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the multilateral Iran nuclear deal
2018.
Iran
had said that the US resolution would fail to gain the required support at the
Security Council, pointing out that Washington has no legal right to invoke a
snapback mechanism to reinstate sanctions against Tehran under the 2015 nuclear
deal that the US unilaterally left in May 2018.
In
relevant remarks in August, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said
it is by no means justifiable for the US to use Dispute Resolution Mechanism
with regard to UNSC Resolution 2231.
"US
recourse to Dispute Resolution Mechanism in 2231 has NO LEG TO STAND ON,"
Zarif wrote on his Twitter page late Sunday.
"AmbJohnBolton
has repeated today what he said on May 8, 2018, while National Security Advisor
in the Trump administration," he noted, adding, "At least he is
consistent—a trait notably absent in this US administration."
Zarif'
tweet came in reaction to former US National Security Advisor John Bolton's
article in Wall Street Journal where he criticized US' decision to trigger
‘snapback mechanism’ against Iran, saying, "The agreement [Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action]’s backers argue that Washington, having withdrawn
from the deal, has no standing to invoke its provisions. They’re right. It’s
too cute by half to say we’re in the nuclear deal for purposes we want but not
for those we don’t."
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990626000900
--------
MP:
Parliament to Require Gov’t to End All N. Deal Undertakings If Trigger
Mechanism Activated
Sep
16, 2020
“We
caution the enemy that if it wants to activate this mechanism, certainly the
revolutionary parliament will require the government to drop all its
undertakings based on the nuclear deal, including the Additional Protocol (to
the Non-Proliferation Treaty),” Seyed Jalil Mir-Mohammadi said, addressing an
open session of the parliament in Tehran on Wednesday.
He
also called on the lawmakers to more seriously pursue approval of the
triple-urgency bill which requires the government to adopt reciprocal measures
against the US and European states’ collaboration at the UN Security Council
against Tehran.
Another
Iranian MP had also on Tuesday declared preparation of the parliament to
approve the triple-urgency bill.
“The
Europeans are playing a hypocritical game about the US attempts to activate the
trigger mechanism and their declared policies are different from what they do,”
Nasrollah Pejmanfar said, addressing an open session of the parliament.
He
noted that the parliament should study the bad cop and good cop game launched
by the US and the Europeans against Iran more thoroughly.
“The
parliament has prepared a triple-urgency bill in this regard to adopt
appropriate actions against the Europeans and Americans’ mischievous
collaboration,” Pejmanfar said.
US
President Donald Trump, a stern critic of the historic deal, unilaterally
pulled Washington out of the JCPOA in May 2018, and unleashed the “toughest
ever” sanctions against the Islamic Republic in defiance of global criticism in
an attempt to strangle the Iranian oil trade, but to no avail since its
"so-called maximum pressure policy" has failed to push Tehran to the
negotiating table.
In
response to the US’ unilateral move, Tehran has so far rowed back on its
nuclear commitments four times in compliance with Articles 26 and 36 of the
JCPOA, but stressed that its retaliatory measures will be reversible as soon as
Europe finds practical ways to shield the mutual trade from the US sanctions.
Tehran
has particularly been disappointed with failure of the three European
signatories to the JCPOA -- Britain, France and Germany -- to protect its
business interests under the deal after the United States' withdrawal.
On
January 5, Iran took a final step in reducing its commitments, and said it
would no longer observe any operational limitations on its nuclear industry,
whether concerning the capacity and level of uranium enrichment, the volume of
stockpiled uranium or research and development.
Now
the US has stepped up attempts aimed at extending the UN arms ban on Iran that
is set to expire as part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),
which has been endorsed by Security Council Resolution 2231.
The
US first sought to extend the Iran's arms embargo in a fresh UNSC resolution in
contradiction to the contents of the Resolution 2231 in two attempts within a
month, but failed.
The
United Nations Security Council resoundingly rejected last month the second US
bid to extend an arms embargo on Iran, which is due to expire in October.
The
resolution needed support from nine of 15 votes to pass. Eleven members
abstained, including France, Germany and Britain, while the US and the
Dominican Republic were the only “yes” votes.
The
United States has become isolated over Iran at the Security Council following
President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the multilateral Iran nuclear deal
2018.
Iran
had said that the US resolution would fail to gain the required support at the
Security Council, pointing out that Washington has no legal right to invoke a
snapback mechanism to reinstate sanctions against Tehran under the 2015 nuclear
deal that the US unilaterally left in May 2018.
In relevant
remarks in August, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said it is by
no means justifiable for the US to use Dispute Resolution Mechanism with regard
to UNSC Resolution 2231.
"US
recourse to Dispute Resolution Mechanism in 2231 has NO LEG TO STAND ON,"
Zarif wrote on his Twitter page late Sunday.
"AmbJohnBolton
has repeated today what he said on May 8, 2018, while National Security Advisor
in the Trump administration," he noted, adding, "At least he is
consistent—a trait notably absent in this US administration."
Zarif'
tweet came in reaction to former US National Security Advisor John Bolton's
article in Wall Street Journal where he criticized US' decision to trigger
‘snapback mechanism’ against Iran, saying, "The agreement [Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action]’s backers argue that Washington, having withdrawn
from the deal, has no standing to invoke its provisions. They’re right. It’s
too cute by half to say we’re in the nuclear deal for purposes we want but not
for those we don’t."
https://en.farsnews.ir/newstext.aspx?nn=13990626000736
--------
Turkish
police detain over 100 people with alleged ties to Gulen: Report
16
September 2020
Turkish
police detained more than 100 people, mostly soldiers on active duty, in an
operation on Wednesday targeting supporters of the Muslim preacher who Ankara
says was behind a failed coup in 2016, state-owned Anadolu news agency
reported.
The
operation marks a fresh wave in a four-year-old crackdown targeting the network
of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. He denies involvement in the July 2016
putsch, in which some 250 people were killed.
For
all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
The
Istanbul state prosecutor’s office issued detention warrants for 132 suspects,
82 of them serving military personnel and the rest retired or expelled from the
armed forces, Anadolu said. So far 106 people have been arrested in raids by
counter-terrorism police across 34 provinces, it said.
On
Tuesday, prosecutors in the western province of Izmir ordered the arrest of 66
suspects, including 48 serving military personnel, in an investigation of the
armed forces.
Since
the coup attempt, about 80,000 people have been held pending trial and some
150,000 civil servants, military personnel and others sacked or suspended. More
than 20,000 people had been expelled from the Turkish military alone.
Ankara
prosecutors on Friday ordered the detention of dozens of lawyers suspected of
operating in support of Gulen.
Turkish
and international lawyers’ groups said the lawyers were simply doing their job
representing clients accused of Gulen links.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/09/16/Turkish-police-detain-over-100-people-with-alleged-ties-to-Gulen-Report
--------
Israeli
aircraft strike Gaza after rocket barrage from strip amid fallout over Arab
normalization deals
16
September 2020
Palestinian
resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip have traded strikes with the Israeli
military as the signing of contentious normalization treaties between Tel Aviv
and two Arab regimes provokes another flare-up in the blockaded territory.
Palestinian
Arabic-language Ma’an news agency, citing local sources, reported that Israeli
fighter jets and helicopters bombed a training base run by the Hamas resistance
movement northwest of Beit Lahiya town early on Wednesday.
Eyewitnesses
confirmed that huge explosions were heard in the northern Gaza Strip before the
site caught fire.
The
sources noted that Israeli warplanes carried out four air raids against the
site, while three others were launched by choppers.
Later,
Israeli jets targeted another Hamas-run site in an area located between Deir
al-Balah city in the central Gaza Strip and Khan Yunis in the southern sector
of the Palestinian enclave.
There
were no immediate reports of casualties in either attack.
The
raids came shortly after Palestinian resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip
fired a barrage of rockets into the Israeli-occupied territories.
Reacting
to the news of the fresh flareup, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
said Wednesday that the overnight rocket fire was meant to undermine Israel's
deals with Arab states.
"They
want to prevent peace, they won't. We will hit everyone who tries to harm us,
and we will extend a hand of peace to all who reach out to us to make
peace," Netanyahu said in a statement
‘A
message of resistance’
Following
the Israeli warplanes’ latest bombardment of the enclave, Hamas issued a
warning to the Tel Aviv regime.
"The
occupation (Israel) will pay the price for any aggression against our people or
resistance sites and the response will be direct," said the resistance
group in a statement.
"We
will increase and expand our response to the extent that the occupation
persists in its aggression," Hamas added on Wednesday.
The
Palestinian rockets triggered sirens in the cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod,
potentially sending hundreds of thousands of Israelis rushing to bomb shelters
just as Netanyahu was signing agreements at the White House with Emirati
Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Bahrain’s Foreign
Minister Abdullatif al-Zayani.
Two
people were reportedly injured and several more treated for shock after a
rocket slammed into a street in Ashdod, according to Israeli media.
Palestinians,
who seek an independent state in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, view the
US-brokered deals as a betrayal of their cause.
Mohammad
al-Hindi, a senior official with the Gaza-based Islamic Jihad resistance
movement, said “the Gaza rockets are a message that this great vanity of the
United States and Israel will be shattered by the Palestinians and that the
final word is for those in the right.”
Hamas
also said in a statement that the Palestinian nation “insists on continuing its
struggle until it secures the return of all of its rights.”
Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas also protested the normalization deals with Israel,
stating they will not foster peace in the Middle East as long as the United
States and the Israeli regime do not recognize the rights of the Palestinian
nation to establish an independent and sovereign state based on the 1967
borders with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.
The
Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli land, air and sea blockade since June
2007, after Hamas, which has vowed to resist Israeli occupation, won the
elections and rose to power in the enclave.
Since
imposing the siege, Israel has also waged three wholesale wars against Gaza,
killing and wounding thousands of Palestinians in each.
The
crippling blockade has caused a sharp decline in the standard of living as well
as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty in the strip.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/09/16/634199/Israeli-aircraft-strike-Gaza-Strip-after-UAE,-Bahrain-sign-US-brokered-normalization-deals
--------
Fury
in Palestine, Bahrain over ‘deals of shame’ with Israel
16
September 2020
Palestinians
and Bahrainis have reacted with anger to the US-mediated normalization
agreements that the regime in Manama and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed
with Israel.
The
agreements were inked on Tuesday at the White House, where US President Donald
Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu along with Emirati and
Bahraini foreign ministers, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Abdullatif
bin Rashid Al Zayani.
The
texts of the accords did not mention any suspension of the Tel Aviv regime’s
plans to annex the occupied West Bank and had little to say about the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Palestinians
rallied in the West Bank cities of Ramallah, Nablus and al-Khalil (Hebron) as
well as the besieged Gaza Strip to denounce the Emirati and Bahraini deals with
Israel.
The
demonstrators also trampled on the pictures of Netanyahu, Trump, Bahrain’s King
Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifah and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al
Nahyan before burning them.
Clutching
Palestinian flags, they also carried banners reading “Treason,” “No to
normalization with the occupier,” and “The agreements of shame.”
“We
call on the UAE and Bahrain to backtrack from the agreement with Israel,” said
al-Khalil protester Mohammad Mohanna. “At a time where companies in the West
are boycotting Israel, two Arab countries are about to make trade agreements
with it.”
Gaza
demonstrator Emad Essa told the Al Jazeera broadcaster that the blockaded
coastal enclave is home to “hundreds of Gazan youth who have lost their legs
and got crippled for life for just for merely protesting against the Israeli
blockade.”
“And
in the West Bank and Jerusalem [al-Quds], the Israeli bulldozers continue to
demolish Palestinian homes and ethnically cleanse the Palestinians out of their
villages and cities on a daily basis,” he said.
“That’s
just the tip of the iceberg of Israeli crimes against the Palestinians, and the
UAE and Bahrain somehow chose to reward Israel for these crimes by making
agreements with it. The deals are stains of shame on the forehead of those
leaders who sold the Palestinian cause for a very cheap price,” he added.
Palestinian
officials denounce Israel-Arab pacts
In a
statement carried by the Wafa news agency, Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas’s office said peace in the Middle East would not materialize without the
recognition of the Palestinians’ right to statehood.
“Everything
that happened in the White House … will not achieve peace in the region as long
as the United States and the Israeli occupation authority do not recognize the
right of the Palestinian people to establish their independent and continuous
state on the June 4, 1967 borders with East Jerusalem [al-Quds] as its capital,
and resolve the Palestinian refugee issue in accordance with Resolution 194,”
read the statemen.
“The
main problem is not between the countries that signed the agreements and the
Israeli occupation authority, but with the Palestinian people who are suffering
under occupation.”
Additionally,
Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) Secretary General Saeb Erekat said
the normalization agreements were tantamount to signing off on Trump’s
self-proclaimed “deal of the century.” The controversial scheme, which was
unveiled in January, was a green light
for Netanyahu’s plan to impose its “sovereignty” over West Bank settlements and
the Jordan Valley — some 30 percent of the West Bank.
“They
never mentioned the 1967 borders. I know the White House, and this is the
height of the campaign season. There isn’t a word of this which wasn’t
precisely specified by the Americans,” Erekat underlined.
Which
Israel did Bahrain and UAE recolonise ? Is it Israel on the 1967 borders or
Israel of the map of President’s Trump vision? https://t.co/wbzz7QWSvB
— Dr.
Saeb Erakat الدكتور
صائب عريقات (@ErakatSaeb) September 16, 2020
Jibril
Rajoub, secretary general of Fatah political party, called the normalization
accords “a disgrace,” stressing that “what is happening today in Washington is
a form of collapse of the official Arab order.”
“The
international absence from attending the agreement’s signing… is evidence of
the world’s belief in the necessity of resolving the conflict in accordance
with international law,” he added.
During
the signing ceremony, the Gaza-based Hamas resistance movement fired two
rockets into the occupied territories, indicating in a statement that the
attack was in response to the peace treaties.
“The
normalization agreements between Bahrain, the UAE, and the Zionist entity are
not worth the paper they were written on,” Hamas said, adding that the
Palestinian nation “insists on continuing its struggle until it secures the
return of all [of] its rights.”
Hamas
spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri also emphasized that the Bahrain and UAE agreements
would not bring peace, saying, “Peoples of the region will continue to deal
with this occupation as their true enemy.”
Senior
Islamic Jihad official Mohammad al-Hindi said, “The Gaza rockets are a message
that this great vanity of the United States and Israel will be shattered by the
Palestinians and that the final word is for those in the right.”
Bahrainis
hold protests
On
Tuesday night, Bahraini people took to the streets to protest the normalization
accords.
Lua Lua
television network showed demonstrators stepping on Israeli flags.
Social
media and political activists shared images of the rallies online, stressing
that the Bahraini nation views normalization with Israel as treason.
The
Bahraini opposition Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society also tweeted, “At the
moment of treason and when they sign on the conspiracy against al-Quds and
Palestine, we shout God is Great, God is Great.”
The
spiritual leader of Shia majority in Bahrain, Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Qassim, has
said in a fatwa (religious decree) that any normalization with the occupying
Israeli regime is forbidden.
Sheikh
Isa Qassim said in a recent statement that each of the Arab regimes, which has
normalized or is normalizing relations with the Israeli enemy, knows that this
contradicts the will of God and that of the nation, and that this would
“represent a submission to both the American and Israeli will.”
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/09/16/634201/Palestine-Bahrain-UAE-Israel-normalization
--------
Israeli
jets bomb Gaza after rocket fire clouds peace deal signing
September
17, 2020
GAZA
CITY: Israel bombed Gaza on Wednesday after militants fired rockets through the
night, overshadowing the signing of landmark normalization deals with the UAE
and Bahrain in Washington.
Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused the militants of seeking to stop the
peace deals, Israel’s first with an Arab country since 1994.
But
Gaza ruler Hamas warned Israel it faced an escalation if the bombing continued,
barely two weeks after a renewed Egyptian-brokered truce halted near-nightly
exchanges across the border through August.
The
signing of the two agreements at a White House ceremony hosted by US President
Donald Trump prompted protest rallies across the Palestinian territories.
The
deals broke with decades of Arab consensus that there would be no normalization
of relations with Israel until it had made peace with the Palestinians and drew
accusations of “betrayal” against the Western-backed Gulf states.
At
least 15 rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip between 8 p.m. on Tuesday
and early Wednesday, nine of which were intercepted by Israeli air defenses,
the military said.
One
hit the southern port city of Ashdod, wounding at least two people, emergency
services said.
“We
were surprised by the rockets,” said Ilanit Levy, a 45-year-old resident of
Sderot, an Israeli town close to the Gaza border.
“It’s
because of the agreements. Maybe they wanted to say that they don’t want peace
with us, that they want to damage the agreements,” she added.
The
Israeli military said fighter jets responded with strikes on Hamas military
targets.
There
was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rocket fire.
But
Israel held Hamas responsible, warning it would “bear the consequences for
terror activity against Israeli civilians.”
The
rocket fire came as the UAE and Bahrain signed accords establishing diplomatic
relations with Israel and Netanyahu accused the militants of seeking to
derail
them.
“They
want to prevent peace, they won’t. We will hit everyone who tries to harm us,
and we will extend a hand of peace to all who reach out to us to make peace,”
the prime minister said in a statement.
The
landmark agreements prompted demonstrations on Tuesday in both Gaza and the
occupied West Bank.
Clutching
Palestinian flags and wearing blue face masks for protection against
coronavirus, demonstrators rallied in the West Bank cities of Nablus, Hebron
and Ramallah, seat of the Palestinian Authority.
Trump
said the agreements “will serve as the foundation for a comprehensive peace
across the entire region.”
“After
decades of division and conflict we mark the dawn of a new Middle East,” he said.
Speaking
later to reporters, he said Israel would enter into similar deals with up to
nine other countries, including regional power Saudi Arabia.
Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas warned that the deals would “not achieve peace in the
region” until the US and Israel acknowledged his people’s right to a state.
“Peace,
security and stability will not be achieved in the region until the Israeli
occupation ends,” he said.
Abbas
warned that “attempts to bypass the Palestinian people and its leadership, represented
by the Palestine Liberation Organization, will have dangerous consequences.”
UN
Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov arrived in Gaza on Wednesday for
pre-scheduled meetings with Hamas officials.
The
new rocket fire came after militants launched rockets and balloons fitted with
incendiary devices across the border through much of August, drawing
retaliatory Israeli airstrikes.
Late
last month, the two sides renewed an Egyptian-brokered truce under which Israel
has allowed financial aid from the gas-rich state of Qatar to flow into
impoverished Gaza, which has been under Israeli blockade since 2007.
https://www.arabnews.com/node/1735766/middle-east
--------
India
Islamic
State Most Active in A Dozen Indian States, Union Home Ministry Tells Rajya
Sabha
Kamaljit
Kaur Sandhu
September
16, 2020
Union
Home Ministry has informed the Parliament that Islamic State (IS) is active in
at least a dozen states in India. MoS Home G Kishan Reddy in a reply to an
unstarred question in Rajya Sabha said on Tuesday that Islamic State is most
active in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and a number of other states.
"Investigations
by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) have revealed that the Islamic State
is most active in Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra,
Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and
Jammu & Kashmir," Reddy informed Rajya Sabha on a question asked by
BJP MP Vinay Sahasrabuddhe.
The
Home Ministry has stated that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has
registered 17 cases related to the presence of Islamic State in the southern
states of Telangana, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and has
arrested 122 accused persons.
Islamic
State or Islamic State of Iraq and Levant/ Islamic State of Iraq and Syria/
Daish/ Islamic State in Khorasan Province (ISKP)/ ISIS Wilayat Khorasan/
Islamic State of Iraq and the Sham-Khorasan (ISIS-K) and all its manifestations
have been notified as terrorist organisations and have been included in the
First Schedule to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 by the Central
Government, the MHA has stated.
Further,
MHA has also stated that Islamic State is using various internet-based social
media platforms to propagate its ideology. As a counter measure the cyber space
is being closely watched in this regard by the agencies concerned and action is
taken as per law.
In a
written response, Reddy stated that some instances of individuals from
different states, including southern states, having joined Islamic State (IS)
have come to the notice of central and state security agencies.
https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/islamic-state-most-active-in-a-dozen-indian-states-mha-tells-rajya-sabha-1722286-2020-09-16
--------
Babri
mosque demolition case verdict on Sept 30; LK Advani among 32 accused asked to
be present
September
16, 2020
The
judgment in the case involving the demolition of the Babri Masjid will be
delivered by a special CBI court on September 30.
Judge
SK Yadav has directed all accused to remain present in the court on the day of
judgment.
Among
the 32 accused in the decades-old case are former deputy prime minister LK
Advani, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh, BJP veteran Murli
Manohar Joshi and Vinay Katiyar.
CBI
counsel Lalit Singh told PTI that arguments of the defence and prosecution
concluded on September 1 and thereafter the special judge started writing the
judgment. The CBI has produced 351 witnesses and about 600 documentary evidence
before the court. The Babri mosque in Ayodhya was demolished by karsevaks on
December 6, 1992.
A
Supreme Court bench had last month extended the deadline for judgment in the
Babri Masjid demolition case till September 30, 2020.
The
Babri Masjid, reportedly built by Babur's general Mir Baqi was demolished by
Kar Sevaks on December 6, 1992. At the time, Advani and Joshi were at the
forefront of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement which asserted that the mosque was
constructed in the place of an ancient Ram temple.
An
FIR was registered in this regard against kar sevaks who demolished the
structure. Apart from Advani-Joshi, cases were also registered against Vishwa
Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders Ashok Singhal, Sadhvi Rithambara and Vishnu Hari
Dalmiya among others.
Former
Deputy PM Lal Krishna Advani deposed before the special CBI court via video
conference on July 24, claiming that he has been falsely implicated. Similarly,
Kalyan Singh's statement was recorded on July 13, Uma Bharti's on July 2 while
Murli Manohar Joshi deposed before the court on July 23 of this year.
https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/babri-mosque-demolition-case-verdict-sept-30-advani-present-judgment-1722382-2020-09-16
--------
Three
terrorists, woman killed in encounter in J&K
Sep
17, 2020
SRINAGAR:
Three terrorists and a civilian woman were killed, while two CRPF personnel,
including an officer, sustained injuries in a predawn gunbattle on Thursday in
Batamaloo area of the city, officials said.
Security
forces launched a cordon and search operation in Firdousabad locality in
Batamaloo area at around 2.30 am following information about the presence of
terrorists there, the officials said.
Jammu
and Kashmir: Three terrorists neutralised in encounter with security forces in
Batamaloo area of Srinagar(vi… https://t.co/11weV6qJpt
— ANI
(@ANI) 1600311004000
They
said the search operation turned into an encounter after terrorists opened fire
on security forces.
One
civilian identified as Kaunsar Riyaz was killed in the firing, while two CRPF
personnel, including an officer, were injured, the officials said.
The
injured personnel were taken to hospital and the operation was still in
progress, they said.
In
the ensuing encounter, three unidentified terrorists were killed, police
tweeted, adding the searches were still going on.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/three-terrorists-neutralised-in-ongoing-encounter-in-srinagar/articleshow/78159361.cms
--------
J&K
youth held for terror link found dead
Sep
16, 2020
SRINAGAR:
A 23-year-old Kashmiri arrested on suspicion of being an "overground
worker" of a terrorist outfit was mysteriously found dead near a quarry in
Baramulla district early Wednesday, triggering allegations of custodial torture
and protests that prompted the administration to suspend internet services in
the Sopore area.
J&K
Police said the deceased, Irfan Ahmad Dar of Sideeq Colony, escaped while being
taken to the Tujjar-Sharief area to verify information provided by him
regarding a suspected arms dump. His body was found a couple of hours later, an
officer said.
Till
late in the night, there was no confirmation of how the youth died. The police
claimed his body bore no injury marks.
Irfan's
family contested the police's claim, saying he was arrested without any proof
of his alleged involvement in subversive activity and possibly tortured to
death in custody. "Our residence has CCTV cameras. You can check footage
recorded over a month-and-a-half and if you find any clue that we harboured
terrorists, I am ready to face any punishment you may pronounce," said the
youth's elder brother Javed, who had also been picked up but was let off when
his health deteriorated.
Javed
was released at 11pm on Tuesday, seven hours after his arrest.
"No
recovery (of ammunition) was made from our place, as claimed by the police. Ten
days ago, they had alleged that a terrorist was hiding in our residence. We
asked them to check the CCTV recordings," he said.
In a
statement, the police said Irfan had been arrested at 12.45pm on Tuesday and
two hand grenades of Chinese make seized from him. "During the course of
the investigation, a police team visited the Chairdaji area of Tujjar-Sharief
along with the OGW (overground worker) for some more recoveries based on his
disclosure. In the meanwhile, the OGW managed to escape, taking advantage of
the darkness and terrain."
A
separate case was registered at Bomai police station regarding his escape, the
statement said.
The
PDP termed Irfan's death a "custodial murder". A spokesperson for the
party said, "This excruciating episode has once again served as a grim
reminder of how truth is mangled and stories are fabricated to justify killing
innocent civilians in J&K."
Accusing
the Centre of trying to justify "its repressive, unconstitutional, inhuman
and extremely violent measures upon the people of Kashmir", the PDP said
that all it needs is a "militancy narrative".
National
Conference demanded a probe into the circumstances of Irfan's death. "The
family of the deceased has a different view, necessitating an impartial and time-bound
inquiry."
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/jk-youth-held-for-terror-link-found-dead/articleshow/78154138.cms
--------
Pakistan
If
Pakistan Is Unwilling to Protect Its Shia Citizens, They May Look to Iran’s
Revolutionary Guards
September
16, 2020
The
world’s largest population of Shia Muslims outside Iran is found in
neighbouring Pakistan where they account for an estimated 15 to 20 per cent of
the population. Although a sizeable minority in the country’s four provinces
and major cities, they are the majority in the northernmost autonomous region
of Gilgit-Baltistan.
Relations
between Pakistani Shia and the larger Sunni community have been largely
harmonious since the creation of Pakistan in 1947 after the partition of India.
Sectarianism was never really at the forefront of identity politics at the time
and the country’s secular founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who hailed from an
Ismaili Shia family, envisioned that the country would be progressive,
democratic and tolerant of minorities, even as a Muslim-majority country.
However,
by the late 1970s, it became apparent that Jinnah’s idea of Pakistan was
eroding when the country underwent a fateful period of Islamisation under
military ruler General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq. The year 1979 in particular was
pivotal, as it saw the emergence of a Shia theocracy in Iran and the start of
the Soviet-Afghan war which lasted into the next decade and in which Pakistan
got involved following stronger ties with Saudi Arabia and the US. These
developments had negative consequences for Pakistan’s Shia citizens who faced
systematic persecution from the 1980s onwards at the hands of militant
anti-Shia organisations. A minority of Shia groups turned to violence in order
to defend the community against attack, albeit relatively restrained by
comparison.
Of
the two main sub-sects among Pakistan’s dominant Hanafi-Sunni population, the
Barelvis are the largest (50 to 60 per cent), which is a similar position to
that in India. They are very much Sufi-inclined and moderate in their religious
views, and arguably closer to the Shia when compared with the Deobandis who
account for around 20 per cent and control most of the country’s madrassas
(religious schools). The Taliban in Afghanistan follow this Hanafi sub-sect. There
are also the Ahle-Hadeeth, otherwise known as Salafis, who have a more modest
but growing following.
Deobandis
and Ahle-Hadeeth are closer ideologically to Saudi Arabia’s puritanical
interpretation of Islam sometimes referred to as Wahhabism. From the time of
Zia ul-Haq money started flooding in from the Gulf, especially from Saudi
Arabia, to fund the Deobandi-affiliated madrassas and mosques. This coincided
with the decline of state-funded education in Pakistan and an uptick in violent
sectarianism.
Some
of these foreign funds went onto supporting sectarian jihadist groups such as
Sipah-e-Sahabah Pakistan (SSP) and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) in an effort to
counter and contain Shia revolutionary influence from Iran. They were also
sponsored by the Pakistani intelligence agencies and were only designated as
terrorist groups in 2002 by former President Pervez Musharraf in the aftermath
of the 9/11 attacks in the US. Nevertheless, they are still active and in many
ways the state tolerates their existence.
Decades
of terrorist attacks on Shia religious processions, mosques, neighbourhoods and
pilgrims returning from Iran, in addition to targeted killings, disappearances
and forced migrations, have prompted activists and human rights organisations
to describe the plight of Pakistan’s Shia as an ongoing genocide. Moreover, it
is said to be one in which the state has not only been ineffective and failed
to provide security for its Shia citizens, but has also, in effect, colluded
with the perpetrators through the free space afforded to supposedly outlawed
groups who continue to evade prosecution.
Legislation
has also played a part in facilitating the persecution of Shia and other
religious minorities such as Christians and the Ahmadis. Between 1987 and 2019,
for example, hundreds of blasphemy cases were reported across various religions
and sects in Pakistan.
The
SSP is said to have introduced the Namus-i-Sahabah (Honour of the Companions of
the Prophet) Bill in the National Assembly, which sought to add the names of the
four Rightly-Guided Caliphs to the list of those covered by the Blasphemy Law.
It has also been argued that the 1980 amendment which added the companions to
the blasphemy law — Section 295A — was probably a symbolic gesture by
Zia-ul-Haq’s government to show its “Islamic credentials” and win over the
hardliners. Nevertheless, it was obvious that the Shia community would be
affected disproportionately by the amendment when its members do not share the
same historic reading or hold the same opinions about certain individuals held
dear by the Sunnis.
In
July, the Punjab Assembly, the largest provincial legislature in Pakistan,
ruled in favour of a bill which seeks even more stringent blasphemy laws for
“protecting Islam”. This led to widespread criticism with fears that the
country will witness further sectarianism and extremism as a result.
According
to a press release issued earlier this month by the Human Rights Commission of
Pakistan, it was reported that there had already been some 40 reported cases of
extremism in the previous month. In fact since the passing of the bill, there
have been numerous arrests of Shia clerics and eulogists during the month of
Muharram over long-established supplications recited to mark the Day of Ashura.
Days
later there were huge rallies by tens of thousands of people in Karachi, which
included the participation of the SSP, LeJ and other extremist groups
publically denouncing Shia as Kaafirs (non-believers). Unsurprisingly, there
followed more targeted killings of Pakistani Shia citizens, several of which
have been publicised widely on social media. One notable incident involved Shia
shopkeeper Qasim Imran; CCTV footage shows him being shot multiple times at
point blank range by his assailants who then fled the scene.
The
developments are a cause of great concern for Pakistan’s Shia, especially when
the government has failed to protect them and basically look the other way as
the extremist voices become louder and the violence more brazen.
With
few options left for their very survival, the Shia of Pakistan may find that
they have little choice but to turn to Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary
Guard Corps (IRGC). The Corps has a track record of training and arming the
likes of Lebanon’s Hezbollah and the Popular Mobilisation Forces in Iraq, both
of which emerged either due to the marginalisation of the Shia or the
incompetence of the state in protecting them. The IRGC has already trained
Afghan and Pakistani brigades. Some argue that they are simply refugees who are
being exploited and sent to fight primarily in Syria. As the persecution of
Shia citizens in Pakistan intensifies, the need to defend themselves may lead
to the so-called Zainebiyoun Brigades shifting the focus from Syria back to
Pakistan, although the faction is still in its early years of development.
In an
ironic twist of fate, therefore, it would seem that the policy of Saudi Arabia
and Zia-ul-Haq intended to curtailing Iranian influence in Pakistan through
promoting extremist Sunni groups could eventually usher it back in.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200916-if-pakistan-is-unwilling-to-protect-its-shia-citizens-they-may-look-to-irans-republican-guards/
--------
Pakistan:
Hardline Sunni groups on collision course with Shiites
14.09.2020
Pakistani
police registered at least 40 blasphemy cases in August, according to the
country's human rights groups.
The
South Asian country's independent Human Rights Commission said most of these
cases were filed against Shiite Muslims in relation to speeches made at
religious processions.
On
Friday, hardline Sunni groups organized a large-scale rally against Shiites in
the country's financial hub, Karachi. Thousands of people participated in the
demonstration and chanted anti-Shiite slogans, including "Shia kafir"
(Shiites are infidel).
Although,
the Sunni-Shiite conflict in Islam is centuries old, it intensified in Pakistan
in the 1980s, after the 1979 Iranian revolution and the subsequent
Saudi-Iranian rivalry.
Sunni
groups accuse Shiites of "disrespecting" some of the Prophet
Muhammad's companions, who they hold in high esteem.
In
the past decade, pro-Saudi Sunni militant extremists have intensified their
attacks on Shiites, who have a religious affiliation to Iran.
Fear
of violence
The
rise in blasphemy accusations and street protests against Shiites has raised
concern about a possible violent confrontation between the two groups.
"It
is an unprecedented rise, and we are worried it can flare up sectarian
violence," Mehdi Hasan, chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
(HRCP), told Dpa news agency last week
Rights
groups criticize the government for not taking action against hardline
sectarian outfits, some of which are banned in the country.
Asad
Iqbal Butt, a senior official of the HRCP, says the authorities are not doing
anything to rein in extremist groups.
"The
situation is alarming not only for Shiites but also for the members of other
minority groups. The government has turned a blind eye to sectarian
organizations that are spreading hatred against Shiites and other religious
minorities," Butt told DW.
Protection
of Islam
In
July, lawmakers of the provincial Punjab assembly passed a bill that imposed
punishments for vilifying holy Sunni figures.
Shiite
activist Rashid Rizvi told DW that most of the blasphemy cases against Shiites
have been filed after the passage of the bill. "More than 40 cases have
been registered in the month of August only and more people are being booked.
One Shiite cleric fled the country due to death threats against him and some
were arrested by police," Rizvi said.
Senator
Akram Baloch is also of the view that the bill has led to a spike in blasphemy
cases. "The Punjab government should immediately scrap the law because it
is fueling sectarian tensions in the country. The law is being misused,"
Baloch told DW.
Sunni
groups, however, say the law is necessary to protect Islam.
Hafiz
Ihtesham Ahmed, an Islamabad-based Sunni cleric, alleges that members of the
Shiite community regularly commit blasphemy. "The Punjab assembly bill has
exposed Shiites who blaspheme against holy figures that are revered by Sunni
Muslims. So, I think the cases [against them] are genuine, and the government
should arrest all those who have been booked," Ahmed told DW.
Muhammad
Jalal Uddin, a member of the Jamiat Ulema Islam, says his party would oppose
any attempt to amend or repeal the Punjab assembly law. "We will go to any
extreme to protect this law. Pakistan is an Islamic country and we should have
Islamic laws," he told DW.
An
alarming situation
Blasphemy
is a sensitive topic in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, where 97 percent of
its 180 million inhabitants are Muslims. According to Pew Research Center,
adherents of Shiite Islam in Pakistan make up between 15-20% of the country's
total population.
Pakistan's
blasphemy laws have come under hefty criticism, as they have often been used to
target minorities, activists, and to settle personal vendettas. Although no one
has yet been executed under the laws, dozens of people are currently sitting on
death row due to blasphemy convictions.
Read
more: Pakistan: Lahore court sentences Christian to death on blasphemy charges
According
to rights groups, around 1,549 blasphemy cases were registered in Pakistan
between 1987 and 2017. More than 75 people have so far been killed
extra-judicially after blasphemy allegations. Some of them were even targeted
after being acquitted in blasphemy cases by courts.
In
2018, Asia Bibi, a Christian woman, was acquitted on appeal and left the
country, provoking violent protests across Pakistan.
Peter
Jacob, a rights activist, said he was concerned at the recent spike in
blasphemy cases, which also involved other minority groups. "In recent
weeks, three members of the minority Ahmaddiya community have been killed – one
over alleged blasphemy and other for unknown reasons. Some Christians have also
been booked in blaspheme cases. Now even Shiite Muslims are being targeted,
with extremist groups openly spreading hatred against them," Jacob told
DW.
Ishaq
Khakwani, a former federal minister and member of the ruling Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, admits that the situation is worrisome. "I am
concerned over an increase in blasphemy cases. People are afraid of supporting
the accused. Even if the person who is accused of blasphemy is released, his
life continues to be in danger," he told DW.
https://www.dw.com/en/pakistan-hardline-sunni-groups-on-collision-course-with-shiites/a-54925086
--------
Pakistan
parliament passes three FATF related bills amid opposition protests
Sep
16, 2020
ISLAMABAD:
Hours after being rejected by the Senate, Pakistan’s parliament in a joint
sitting on Wednesday bulldozed three Financial Action Task Force-related laws
in an attempt to avoid being added to the task force’s blacklist.
In
the joint session, marred by opposition protests, the bills were passed with a
thin majority of 10 votes, with 200 lawmakers voting in its support and 190
opposition legislators opposing the legislation.
The
three bills passed with amendments were the Islamabad Capital Territory Waqf Properties
Bill, 2020; Anti-Money Laundering (Second Amendment) Bill; and the
Anti-Terrorism Act (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
Being
passed thrice by the National Assembly in the past, these bills were blocked
three times by the opposition-dominated Upper House, prompting President Arif
Alvi to summon a joint session of parliament to make crucial legislation.
The
Paris-based FATF had placed Pakistan on its grey list in June 2018, making it
extremely difficult for the cash-starved country to raise money on the
international bond market.
Before
the bills were passed in parliament’s joint sitting, the Senate had rejected
the FATF-related anti-money laundering legislation, objecting to some of its
provisions.
According
to the Anti-Terrorism Act(Amendment) Bill, 2020, the one specifically aimed at
addressing FATF’s 27-point action plan given to Islamabad last year, the
investigating officer, with the permission of the court, can conduct covert
operations to detect terrorism funding and track communications and computer
systems by applying the latest technologies in 60 days. It also states that
written requests would be made to the court for extension of investigation and
the court may extend the period for another 60 days. The bill says funding for
terrorism is a major obstacle in the country’s development and a source of
disgrace. “Terrorism funding was benefiting those elements which were not only
a threat to internal and external peace of the country but also its allies,” it
says.
“The
main purpose of introducing this bill is to enable law enforcement agencies to
eradicate these curses by adopting certain preventive techniques with the empowered
assistance of the courts of law,” it adds.
The
Anti-Money Laundering Bill, 2020, is about streamlining the existing
anti-money-laundering law in line with international standards prescribed by
the FATF.
The
Islamabad Capital Territory Waqf Properties Bill is aimed at proper management,
supervision and administration of Waqf properties in the territorial limits of
Islamabad Capital Territory.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/pakistan-parliament-passes-three-fatf-related-bills-amid-opposition-protests/articleshow/78154240.cms
--------
Stringent
law to curb child abuse, rape on the cards
Iftikhar
A. Khan
17
Sep 2020
ISLAMABAD:
Prime Minister Imran Khan has announced that the government will soon introduce
a three-tier legislation providing for registration of sex offenders, exemplary
punishment for rape and child abuse and effective policing.
“Such
incidents ruin the lives of victims and their families also have to suffer,”
said Mr Khan, referring to the heart-wrenching incident on the Lahore-Sialkot
motorway on Sept 9. He pointed out that the main suspect in the recent
gang-rape case was a history-sheeter, explaining that global data indicated
that such criminals were repeat offenders and therefore maintaining their data
was important.
The
prime minister expressed these views while addressing a joint sitting of
parliament after passage of a number of Financial Action Task Force-related
bills on Wednesday.
Imran
accuses opposition of blackmailing govt over FATF-related bills
Mr
Khan said the legislation being prepared would not only provide for exemplary
punishment for rape and child abuse offences but would also contain provisions
for registration of sex offenders and effective policing. He admitted that only
a very small percentage of such cases were reported to police in the country.
Even after the arrest of offenders in rape and child abuse cases, their
conviction was not easy in absence of proper prosecution and concrete evidence,
he pointed out. For this reason, he said, the bill being prepared would also
provide for witness protection.
The
prime minister in his speech also accused the opposition parties of trying to
blackmail the government over the Financial Action Task Force-related
legislation.
After
the passage of a few more FATF-related bills, Mr Khan said the opposition had
demanded amendment to 34 of the total 38 clauses of the National Accountability
Bureau law, which if accepted would mean burying the anti-graft watchdog.
He
said the opposition sought to exclude money laundering from the NAB law under
the cover of FATF-related legislation in order to hide corruption of their
leaders who owned precious foreign assets. “Why they are scared if they have
not laundered ill-gotten money,” Mr Khan remarked.
According
to a report, Mr Khan said, 10 billion dollars were laundered from Pakistan each
year. He said Hyde Park-1 was one of the most expensive properties in London.
Likewise, Mayfair was among most-prized land in London. He said the other
opposition party leader also owned properties in the name of his front-men.
However, he said, former president Asif Zardari had a property in New York in
his name and a case in this regard was in process.
He
also criticised the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party
governments for five-fold increase in external debts during their 10-year rule.
In attempt to justify the borrowings in last two years, the prime minister said
what other option was left for the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government to
run the country’s affairs when “half of the amount collected by us through
taxes went in debt servicing and Rs2,600 billion of the Rs4,000 billion revenue
generated in the second year would be spent to pay loan installments”.
Mr
Khan said when the government talked of corruption, the opposition clamoured
terming it political victimisation. “Are they protecting public interest? They
want to save the stolen money,” he said.
He
explained that Pakistan had not been grey-listed by the FATF during the present
government term, but it had inherited this status. He said democratic
opposition had an important role to play in protecting the rights of the
masses.
“The
opposition’s attitude on FATF legislation has confirmed my views about their
leadership. The interests of their leaders and Pakistan are in contrast with
each other,” he remarked.
He
elaborated that Pakistan’s placement on the FATF’s grey list would simply mean
sanctions, which would crash the economy. Therefore, he said, the bills to meet
FATF requirement were in the country’s interest but the opposition gave
preference to personal interest.
The
prime minister said the government was ready to extend any kind of cooperation
to the opposition in the interest of the country and democracy, but ruled out
any compromise on corruption.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1580060/stringent-law-to-curb-child-abuse-rape-on-the-cards
--------
IHC
disposes of Nawaz’s appeal against order in Al-Azizia case, for now
17
Sep 2020
ISLAMABAD:
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) will start hearing appeals against conviction of
former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in Al-Azizia reference after completing the
requirements regarding his attendance in the court.
The
court disposed of a petition seeking hearing of his appeal on merit with the
observation that “decision regarding the disposal of the appeal of the
appellant on merit under Section 423 CrPC [criminal procedure code] shall be
taken [up] after the procedure for procuring attendance of the appellant is
completed”.
The
IHC’s division bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar
Kayani on Tuesday issued non-bailable warrants for Mr Sharif.
In
the detailed judgement, the bench directed the federal government to execute
the warrants “through High Commission of Pakistan in United Kingdom”.
Says
plea to be taken up after matters pertaining to his attendance in court are
dealt with
Further
hearing in this matter has been adjourned till Sept 22.
During
the course of the hearing on Tuesday, Mr Sharif’s counsel Khawaja Haris Ahmed
had cited a number of judgements, including the one relating to trial of
retired General Pervez Musharraf, and pointed out that the superior judiciary
had granted right of audience to the counsel for the former military ruler even
after he had been declared a proclaimed offender.
He
argued that Mr Sharif had to travel abroad for his treatment due to a
“life-threatening indisposition”. He further contended that the appellant was
unable to return to Pakistan and appear before the court due to his condition
and, therefore, the instant appeal be decided on merit after hearing the
pleader/counsel appointed by him for representing him in the appeals.
In
support of his contentions, the counsel relied on Section 423 of the CrPC as
well as the case law on the subject. He also disclosed the details of a
certificate issued by one Dr David Lawrence.
The
court noted that the appellant sought a decision on the case on merit in the
light of the fact that he was unable to appear before the court on the dates to
be fixed for a decision on the appeal in view of Section 423 of the CrPC.
The
reason for absence is the indisposition of the appellant.
The
court said: “For the sake of backdrop, it is mentioned that the appellant was
tried and convicted by Accountability Court-I, vide judgement dated July 6,
2018; he filed the instant appeal and with the same a petition under Article
199 of the Constitution was also filed seeking suspension of the sentence and
release on bail. The said petition was allowed by this court vide judgement
dated September 19, 2018.
“The
appellant [Mr Sharif] then proceeded to the United Kingdom in November 2019 and
is still there allegedly on account of his indisposition. Meanwhile, the
appellant was declared a proclaimed offender by Accountability Court No-III,
vide order dated September 9, 2020, in Toshakhana reference.”
The
court also observed in its order: “It is trite law that after a person has been
declared as a fugitive from law or an absconder, even in another case he loses
his rights granted to him by procedural or substantive law.”
Because
in a connected appeal the bail granted to the appellant had lapsed, an order
had been passed for his attendance and appearance before the court.
According
to the judgement, Mr Sharif ought to surrender before the court after lapse of
his bail granted by the IHC.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1580075/ihc-disposes-of-nawazs-appeal-against-order-in-al-azizia-case-for-now
--------
South Asia
Discussing
Cause of War Determines Peace in Afghanistan: Taliban Spokesman
By
Mohammad Arif Sheva
17
Sep 2020
DOHA,
Qatar – The Taliban’s Spokesman Mohammad Naeem Wardak said Wednesday in Doha
the group will not agree to a ceasefire unless the main cause of the war is
discussed on the peace ‘negotiating table’, according to sources.
While
the Taliban claim to have reduced violence in Afghanistan since beginning of
the peace process, the Afghan government said the group has intensified war
throughout the country amid peace talks, which is “unacceptable”.
“It
does not make sense to end 20 years of war in one hour,” Wardak told TOLOnews
reporter Karim Amini in Doha. “In our perspective, it will be logical to
discuss the main aspects of the problems and the war and then finalize a
ceasefire so that the problem is resolved permanently.”
“Suppose,
if we announce a ceasefire today, but then we fail to reach an agreement at the
negotiating table tomorrow, do we go toward the war again? What does this
mean?” he elaborated.
Highlighting
their vision on peace negotiations, the Taliban spokesman said they have two
objectives: first “to end the invasion of Afghanistan, the other one was that
there is a true Islamic system that is answerable to the public and the
nation.”
“We
have entered the peace process with a strong will and determination, we want
this problem finally to be resolved,” Wardak said as quoted by TOLOnews. “The
process is complicated and it has its own complexities, but we are hopeful that
the problems come to an end.”
Roughly
a week has passed by, yet both the Afghan and Taliban delegations have to
finalize the talks’ mechanism and agenda, which will not only determine a
political settlement in the country, but also the achievement of the past two
decades.
https://www.khaama.com/discussing-cause-of-war-determines-peace-in-afghanistan-taliban-spokesman-2343/
--------
Taliban
Tell Afghan Government They Have No Aim to Seize Power
By
Eltaf Najafizada
September
16, 2020
Taliban
leaders told their government counterparts at the Afghan peace talks they
wouldn’t seek to seize power and that their struggle was to free the country
from foreign forces and establish an Islamic system.
“Our
battle is not for taking power but for the independence of our country from
foreign occupation and the establishment of an Islamic system,” the group’s
chief negotiator, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, told the government delegation Tuesday,
according to a series of tweets by his spokesman.
The
government is holding the first peace talks in 19 years with the Taliban in
Doha, Qatar, where the group has an office, facilitated by the U.S. Both sides
are looking to end the two-decade war that’s killed or wounded tens of
thousands of Afghans and cost the U.S. more than $900 billion.
Hakim
Haqqani said the Taliban is bound by the Feb. 29 peace agreement reached with the
U.S. and urged the U.S. and its allies to live up to their obligation under the
pact to pull out of the country within 14 months of signing of the agreement.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-15/taliban-tell-afghan-government-they-have-no-aim-to-seize-power
--------
Pompeo:
Less than 200 Al Qaeda Left in Afghanistan
By
Mohammad Haroon Alim
16
Sep 2020
Pompeo
speaking at an Atlantic Council, pointed there are fewer than 200 Alqaeda
members left in Afghanistan.
“We
are now delivering a set of outcomes that will reduce the cost of blood from
our American servicemen and women,” Pompeo said.
According
to the U.S – Taliban Deal, the Taliban vowed to cut ties with Alqaeda and other
insurgent groups.
The
agreement requires the United States to withdraw its remaining troops from
Afghan soil.
https://www.khaama.com/pompeo-less-than-200-alqaeda-left-in-afghanistan/
--------
Arab world
How
the Islamic State found a haven in Syrian desert
Sultan
al-Kanj
Sep
15, 2020
The
Islamic State (IS) operations against Syrian regime and pro-Iranian targets
have recently intensified, causing additional losses among those forces despite
the military operation that Russia launched on Aug. 25 against IS in the Syrian
desert, known as Badiya, in central Syria.
The
Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Sept. 7 that IS “carried out separate
attacks and set up ambushes in separate areas of Badiya, over the past week.
The organization’s operations included bombings, attacks and ambushes, and were
concentrated in al-Shula area west of Deir ez-Zor, the desert of Boukamal to
the east of Deir ez-Zor, the Deir ez-Zor-Al-Mayadin road, the Hamima-third
station road toward the city of Palmyra in the eastern countryside of Homs, the
Rusafa area in the countryside of Raqqa, the Ithria area in the eastern
countryside of Hama and the desert of Sweida.”
Following
the killing of a Russian general at the hands of IS, the Russian Ministry of
Defense announced Aug. 25 the launch of a military operation against IS in
Badiya under the name of “White Desert.”
A
Russian military spokesman said in a statement, “The terrorists are impeding
the return of social and economic life in Syria, and they are also working to
hinder normalization between the local Arab tribes and the authorities [in
reference to the Syrian regime]. The United States is the main beneficiary of
[IS attacks], using them as a pretext to justify its presence in eastern
Syria.”
The
Russian general, Vyacheslav Gladkikh, was killed Aug. 18 along with a leader of
the National Defense Forces, which is affiliated with the regime, by an
improvised explosive device planted by IS in the countryside of Deir ez-Zor
province.
Hammam
Issa, a media activist from the countryside of Aleppo in the know of IS operations,
told Al-Monitor, “The Syrian desert extends over an area of about 80,000 square
kilometers [31,000 square miles], which gives the organization the ability to
catch the regime forces off guard as they move to and from Deir ez-Zor province
in the far east of Syria through the Raqqa desert. This desert extends to the
countryside of Suwayda, the countryside of Damascus, the countryside of Hama
and Homs in the west, and reaches the Syrian-Iraqi border in the east. It also
extends to the Syrian-Jordanian border in the south and the outskirts of the
provinces of Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor in the north.”
He
said that Russia is using Liwa al-Quds (Jerusalem Brigade) as a spearhead in
the fight against IS in Badiya to fill the void left by the National Defense
Forces after they withdrew from the confrontation against IS in the area due to
the losses incurred in the past months. The Russian forces are now providing
support to Liwa al-Quds to control the security and military situation in the
Syrian desert, he explained.
Liwa
al-Quds, formed in 2013, is mainly made up of Palestinian fighters fighting
alongside Syrian regime forces.
Liwa
al-Quds, according to Issa, transferred pro-regime military groups from Aleppo
and Idlib countryside to Badiya to take part in operations against IS.
In
this context, Suhaib Abdul-Razzaq Jaber, a journalist from Deir ez-Zor
countryside, told Al-Monitor, “IS has turned Badiya into a black hole that
swallows regime soldiers. All the parties controlling the area [the regime
forces, Russia, Iran and the Kurdish forces] know very well that the
organization still has a last enclave in the desert. And since 2017, they [the
parties] have been aware of the size of this enclave and the number of IS
elements present therein.”
He
added, “They [the Syrian regime, Kurdish forces, Russia and Iran] are the ones
who allowed the organization to flee toward the desert and get stationed in
this last enclave, in al-Maizilah and Sabaa Biyar and their surroundings. The
organization’s recent moves are only normal since it is a terrorist
organization. But what is more of a terrorist act is having allowed this
terrorist organization to survive while it targeted civilians that year [in
reference to the July 2018 killing of hundreds in Suwayda] and civilians fleeing
the 'virtual' war between IS and [President Bashar al-] Assad.”
Jaber
noted that IS moves easily in the desert, where it is easy to hide, especially
at night. IS militants carry out individual attacks, making it hard to be
targeted by airstrikes, he added, and this has helped the organization to
survive in its last enclave, by also carrying out surprise attacks before
disappearing.
“Some
leaders of Assad’s militias are also dealing with IS to smuggle people and
goods. The two parties have even covered for each other under a truce or an
agreement between them. This truce or agreement may have happened after a
number of leaders from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps visited military
bases in Badiya, close to IS pockets, including Qasem Soleimani in 2019 and the
Iranian minister of defense [in 2018],” Jaber added.
He
said the reason Russia lost some of its officers at the hands of IS is that
these officers are not trained to conduct military operations in desert areas.
Also, he added, Russian officers do not know the places where IS planted mines.
The
journalist ruled out that IS would launch attacks with the aim of controlling
some cities, such as the city of al-Sukhna, the second-largest city in Badiya
after Palmyra. However, he said, the organization launches on a weekly basis
attacks in the outskirts of the main cities such as Abu Kamal, al-Mayadin,
al-Ashara, al-Quriah, al-Sukhna, Palmyra, al-Shula and Kobajjep, among others.
Asked
about the regime forces’ failure to eliminate IS in Badiya, Jaber said, “All
the regime’s operations are failing because its forces are drained. It does not
have the human, technical or material capabilities to fight this battle, and
its main dependence is on Western powers that are inexperienced in fighting the
organization under such circumstances.”
Abd
al-Rahman al-Asef, a former jihadist leader and expert on jihadist groups, told
Al-Monitor, “The most important factor contributing to the organization’s
steadfastness is its organizational structure. Add to this its conduct of
operations based on a well-thought-out strategy. Russia will continue to be
defeated by IS so long as it is unaware of the organization’s strategy.
Meanwhile, Russia is inflating IS losses in order to portray itself as fighting
terrorism at a time when the United States has failed to seriously deal with
terrorism. All this propaganda is to justify its presence in Syria and its
support for the regime’s killing of Syrians. After all, Russia came to Syria to
support Assad, not to fight terrorism.”
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/09/syria-desert-islamic-state-attacks-regime-russia.html?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1528355_
--------
Iraq,
counter-IS coalition kill, capture Islamic State figures
Sep
15, 2020
Iraqi
commandos killed a suspected Islamic State (IS) financier and captured an IS
leader in an operation in western Anbar province on Monday, according to Iraq’s
Defense Ministry.
Soldiers
of Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS) were dropped in al-Rutba district by
helicopters of the US-led coalition, coalition spokesperson Capt. Jose Uriarte
told Al-Monitor via email.
Iraq’s
Security Media Cell described the killed suspect as a “major financier” of IS
in the predominantly Sunni Anbar province.
Neither
a spokesperson for Iraq’s Defense Ministry nor one for Iraq’s CTS returned
requests for comment.
Iraq’s
security forces have arrested more than a dozen suspected IS operatives across
the country over the past several days. The CTS said today its soldiers
thwarted an attempted bombing in a Baqubah market.
Earlier
this week, Iraq’s Defense Minister Juma Inad Saadoun visited the Anbar
Operations Room to discuss continuing operations against IS cells in the
western desert. On Saturday, Iraqi forces got into a skirmish in the Anbar
desert with suspected IS militants, the Defense Ministry said.
Iraq’s
military also continues to uncover weapons stashes in the desert near the
Syrian border, the Defense Ministry said.
IS
lost control of western Anbar in 2017, but a recent United Nations report said
as many as 10,000 IS fighters remain at large in Iraq and Syria.
US-led
international coalition troops rarely accompany Iraqi forces on joint ground
operations anymore. The coalition, which underwent a routine change-of-command
ceremony in Baghdad last week, has consolidated in the Iraqi capital and
withdrawn from smaller bases around the country as it transitions to focus on
advising and mentoring Iraqi commanders.
The
transition earlier this year was hastened by the impending coronavirus pandemic
and rocket attacks by suspected Iran-linked militias.
The
Trump administration says it will withdraw more than a third of its coalition
military personnel from Iraq before the 2020 US presidential election, which is
scheduled for November.
In March
of last year, Syrian Kurdish-led forces backed by the US-led coalition captured
IS’s last redoubt, a town called Baghouz on the Syrian side of the Syria-Iraq
border.
Thousands
of foreign suspected IS fighters and their family members remain in makeshift
prisons and detention camps in northeast Syria, with little prospect of trial
or extradition.
https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/09/iraq-isis-financier-terrorist-anbar.html?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1528355_
--------
Syria
calls US ‘rogue state’ over Trump remark on wanting to kill al-Assad
16
September 2020
Damascus
on Wednesday hit back at Donald Trump and likened the US to a “rogue” state or
“terrorist group,” after the US president said he had wanted to assassinate
Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad.
“Trump’s
admission of such a step confirms that the US administration is a rogue...
state,” Syria’s foreign ministry said in a statement carried by state news
agency SANA.
“It
pursues the same tactics as terrorist groups such as murder and assassination,”
it said, one day after Trump made the remarks to the morning show Fox &
Friends.
For
all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
The
US president said his then-secretary of defense Jim Mattis opposed the
assassination of al-Assad in 2017.
“I
would have rather taken him out. I had him all set,” Trump said.
“Mattis
didn’t want to do it. Mattis was a highly overrated general, and I let him go.”
Trump
was reportedly mulling assassinating al-Assad after the Syrian president
allegedly launched a chemical attack on civilians.
In
April 2017, a sarin gas attack on the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhun killed
more than 80 people.
Trump
unleashed missile strikes against the regime’s Shayrat airbase, from where the
gas attack was allegedly launched.
However,
Trump’s remarks to Fox & Friends contradict other comments he made to
reporters in the Oval office on September 5, 2018, when he said that killing
Assad “was never even contemplated.”
In
April 2018, the US, France and Britain launched retaliatory strikes after
another alleged regime chemical attack on the then rebel-held town of Douma,
near Damascus.
After
nine years of war, the al-Assad government controls some 70 percent of Syria.
The
conflict has since 2011 killed at least 380,000 people and displaced around
half of Syria’s pre-war population.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/09/16/Syria-calls-US-rogue-state-over-Trump-remark-on-wanting-to-kill-al-Assad
--------
Rocket
attack on Baghdad’s Green Zone housing US embassy: Reports
16
September 2020
A
Katyusha rocket was launched toward the Green Zone in Baghdad, home to the US
Embassy, from the Amil District, the Iraqi News Agency (IQA) reported on
Wednesday.
No
damages or casualties have been reported, IQA said.
For
all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
Sirens
sounded from the US embassy in southwestern Baghdad, according to an Al Arabiya
correspondent.
“A
Katyusha rocket landed inside the Green Zone, specifically on the residential
building No. 31 in the al-Qadisiyah Residential Complex. It did not cause
damage or lead to human losses. I was launched from the Amil District near
al-Hadi Mosque,” the Iraqi News Agency reported citing a statement from the
Iraqi Security Media Cell.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/09/16/Rocket-attack-on-Baghdad-s-Green-Zone-housing-US-base-Reports
--------
Lebanon
hits bottom of barrel credit rating as government formation flounders
16
September 2020
Lebanon’s
credit rating downgraded again on Wednesday as the country continues to feel
the effects of compounding economic and financial crises.
Credit
ratings company Moody’s Investors Service downgraded Lebanon to the firm’s
lowest possible rating, a C, taking the country to the deepest end of junk
status. Lebanon’s economic collapse has accelerated since the end of 2019 and
talks with the International Monetary Fund to restructure the country’s debt
have stalled.
“Lebanon's
C rating is the lowest on our rating scale, reflecting our expectation that
losses incurred by bondholders will likely exceed 65 percent,” said Elisa
Parisi-Capone, vice president - senior analyst at Moody’s Investors Service in
a press release. “The rating is unlikely to move from its current position
before the restructuring, given the extent of the macroeconomic, financial and
social challenges and our expectation of very significant losses.”
For
all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
Moody’s
said the collapse of the local currency in the parallel market and subsequent
inflation have fueled a highly unstable environment.
The
Lebanese lira, which is technically pegged to the US dollar at 1,507 lira to
one, now trades for above 7,000 on the parallel market. Inflation has soared as
a result, salaries have plunged, while prices for basic goods, such as food,
have increased.
Lebanon’s
economic environment has been made more volatile as access to external funding
is conditioned upon government reforms, Moody’s explained. For years, aid from
Western donors has been conditional on structural reforms across various
sectors that successive governments have failed to make.
“For
Lebanon’s rating to rise from current levels, the key drivers of the country's
debt dynamics, such as economic growth, interest rates, privatization revenue
and the ability to generate and sustain large primary surpluses, would need to
evolve in a way that ensures future debt sustainability,” Moody’s said.
Lebanon,
which has relied on deposits from abroad to keep its highly dollarized economy
running, began to face problems last October as the greenback became
increasingly scarce.
Since
then, crises have mounted as the fragile political system unwound with
protesters taking to the streets calling for reform.
Most
recently, government corruption and incompetence came into focus when ammonium
nitrate stored at the Port of Beirut caused an unprecedented explosion on
August 4, causing damage to large sections of the city, and pushing the country
further into economic hardship. While previous governments knew of the
chemical’s presence for years, they had failed to move it elsewhere.
Former
Prime Minister Hassan Diab stepped down in the wake of the blasts, and now,
with French intervention, new Prime Minister-designate Mustapha Adib was given
two weeks to form a government. However, that deadline has since passed and
rumors now swirl that that Adib may step aside.
Meanwhile,
the country’s economy continues to sink and the current government, in its
caretaker capacity, has little ability to pass legislation or make reforms
necessary that could attract foreign aid or boost the country’s credit rating.
Moody’s
noted that reforms must include making public finances and the banking system
solvent again via comprehensive debt restructuring, passing legislation to
formalize capital controls, the elimination of the current multiple exchange
rate system, and comprehensive audits of state-owned enterprises and the
central bank.
While
a capital controls law has been drafted, it was shelved by lawmakers. The
central bank has intervened to try to stabilize the exchange rate by setting
various rates, but the multiple-tiered exchange system is still in place. In
July, the government hired Alvarez & Marsal to audit the central bank.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/business/economy/2020/09/16/Lebanon-hits-bottom-of-barrel-credit-rating-as-government-formation-flounders
--------
Africa
Libya
east-based force: 7 militants, foreign fighters killed
15
September 2020
CAIRO
-- Libya's east-based army claimed on Tuesday that its troops killed at least
seven Islamic State militants, including foreign fighters, in a raid on their
hideout in the country’s south.
The
statement from the self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces said a six-hour
firefight overnight with the militants took place in a neighborhood of the city
of Sabha, 650 kilometers (400 miles) south of the capital, Tripoli.
The
force, led by commander Khalifa Hifter, said the dead include three militants
from Saudi Arabia, an Australian, an Egyptian and two Libyans. Hifter's troops
shared graphic photos of the dead, along with their alleged passports to show
their identities.
The
troops also detained two women, a Libyan and an Egyptian, in the raid. A
pro-Hifter news website, al-Marsad, reported that three of Hifter's forces were
also killed.
Libya
is divided between two rival administrations, based in the country's east and
west, with an array of fighters and militias, backed by various foreign powers
allied with each side.
In
the years after the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Moammar
Gadhafi, IS and other extremists had managed to gain a foothold in the country,
benefiting from Libya’s remote stretches near the borders with Egypt, Sudan,
Chad, Algeria, Niger and Tunisia.
Hifter,
who was instrumental in pushing back IS and who is aligned with the east-based
administration, attempted a power grab last year, with a military offensive
launched in April 2019 aimed at capturing Tripoli.
But
the west-based Libyan forces and militias allied with the U.N.-supported
government in Tripoli defeated that offensive with Turkey's military help and
Hifter's campaign collapsed in June.
Fighting
has died down in recent weeks amid intensive international efforts, including
from the United States, to establish a lasting cease-fire and avert a showdown
between the rival sides over the strategic city of Sirte, the gateway for vital
oil facilities.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/libya-east-based-force-militants-foreign-fighters-killed-73019653?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1528355_
--------
Nigeria's
3rd Place in Global Terrorism Ranking Disappointing, Says APC Group
14
SEPTEMBER 2020
By
Joseph Erunke
The
APC Consolidation Group, a group in the ruling All Progressives Congress,
APC-CG, has described Nigeria's latest ranking as third in the Global Terrorism
Index,GTI, as not only disappointing but also embarrassing, saying the rating
had confirmed its position that the nation's service chiefs were not on top of
its security situation.
To
this end, it reiterated its call that President Muhammad Buhari relieves the
security chiefs of their positions, saying anything contrary would portray the
president as being insensitive to the security of lives and property of
citizens which it noted,the president swore in the constitution to protect.
The
National Coordinator of the group, Dr Usman Mohammed, in a statement Monday
morning,in reaction to the latest Global Terrorism Index report which places
Nigeria as occupying the third position among countries worst hit by terrorism,
globally,insisted that APC-CG was disturbed given what it noted,government had
expended so far to free the country of security threats.
The
group which had in a recent statement, called on the president to sack the
service chiefs as according it,they were not indispensable to be done away with
on the face of daily security threats confronting the country,insisted that the
president must see reason with its position and immediately do the needful.
In
the statement it tagged,"Sack Service Chiefs over Global Terrorism
Rating",the APC group regretted that the latest Global Terrorism Index
rating would further drive away foreign investments thus reduce the country's
Gross Domestic Product,GDP.
Describing
the GTI rating as "the worst thing that has ever happened to a government
that mean so well for the people like the Government of President Muhammad
Buhari," it noted that:"No doubt,the rating is so due to the actions
and inactions of his service chiefs."
"We
are saddened by this report which by implication will close many economic doors
on Nigeria and drastically bring down our GDP," it said.
The
statement read in full:" We, the entire members of APC Consolidation
Group,APCG received with rude shock and total disappointment the 2019 Global
Terrorism Report which ranks Nigeria as the 3rd most terrorized country in the
world.
"This
report is the worst thing that has ever happened to a government that mean so
well for the people like the Government of President Muhammad Buhari. No
doubt,the rating is so due to the actions and inaction of his service chiefs.
So,we are worried our dear president's continuous retention of these officers.
"Consequently,we
are calling on the president to sack the current security chiefs heading the
Nigeria Armed forces. The chiefs of Defence, Army, Airforce and Naval
Staff,over their inability to deliver on his vision and the expectation of
Nigeria's on security.
"We
are saddened by this report which by implication will close many economic doors
on Nigeria and drastically bring down our GDP. Investors will leave Nigeria and
intending once may have a rethink about coming to Nigeria .
"We
in APC Consolidation Group insist that Mr President means well for for
Nigerians in every area, but unfortunately insecurity is threatening his
policies in agriculture, infrastructure, power and others.
"From
our findings, if urgent steps is not taken to address the insecurity in the
land, famine will by next year,be alarming and that will frustrate his huge
investment in agriculture through CBN.
"
Farmers cannot conveniently farm this year because of banditry attacks and
kidnapping. Power installations are being vandalized on a daily basis,thus
frustrating his huge investment in power and agricultural sectors.
"The
entire Northern Nigeria is not safe as at today because of terrorism, banditry
and some strange crimes that were before now, alien to Nigeria. This call for
serious and urgent concern, and Mr President must reason to act now.
"The
global terrorism report is a total embarrassment to our country and the
security architecture. We wonder how we got here despite the government huge
investment in security particularly the Armed Forces.
"We
have nothing personal against the service chiefs. As a matter of fact, they
have done their best, but our concern is borne out of sincere love for
Nigeria,our president and our great party which this insecurity is threatening
it's glory.
"The
current service chiefs, no doubt, having spent five years plus, must have ran
out of fresh ideas required to transform the country's security situation. To
us,they have lost touch with the current security reality and there's need for
our president to sack them without further delay.
We
want to once again, remind Mr President that every Nigeria is tired with the
insecurity and need results. We are therefore calling on Mr president to listen
to Nigeria's and sack the service chiefs immediately."
Recall
that the GTI, which is in its sixth edition, is produced annually by the
Institute for Economics & Peace, an independent, non-partisan, non-profit
think tank with offices in Sydney, New York, and Mexico City,respectively.
https://allafrica.com/stories/202009150186.html?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1528355_
--------
Al-Shabab
growing more emboldened in targeting US troops
16
September 2020
Al-Shabab,
an al-Qaida offshoot based in Somalia, is growing more emboldened in targeting
U.S. troops, according to U.S. Africa Command’s director of intelligence Navy
Rear Adm. Heidi Berg.
“We
do assess that there is a definitive shift in focus on conducting attacks
against the U.S.” Berg told reporters Friday. “We’ve watched that take place
over the course of a couple of months.”
Violent
extremist groups including ISIS-Somalia, Boko Haram and al-Qaida in the Islamic
Maghreb exist in Africa. But Berg claimed that al-Shabab is particularly
worrisome, and noted that the organization’s propaganda and public
announcements are “reminiscent” of al-Qaida’s prior to the 9/11 attacks.
“We
currently assess that al-Shabab is the most capable terrorist group on the
African continent in terms of the ability to potentially threaten Western
interests regionally,” Berg said.
The
comments come days after a U.S. service member was injured in an al-Shabab
attack on Sept. 7 where militants used a vehicle as an improvised explosive
device and mortar fire.
AFRICOM
reported last week the service member, who was among U.S. and Somali troops
conducting an advise, assist and accompany mission at the time of the attack,
was in stable condition and receiving treatment for non-life-threatening
injuries.
But
other al-Shabab attacks have been deadly for Americans. In January, U.S. and
Kenyan forces were attacked at Manda Bay Airfield in Kenya and the ambush
resulted in the deaths of Army Spc. Henry Mayfield Jr., 23, and two U.S.
Department of Defense contractors, Dustin Harrison, 47, and Bruce Triplett, 64.
AFRICOM
officials previously told reporters that they believed al-Shabab militants came
from Somalia and received assistance from facilitators in Kenya to pull off the
attack.
https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-military/2020/09/15/africom-al-shabab-growing-more-emboldened-in-targeting-us-troops/?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1528355_
--------
North America
US
will do all it needs to do to ensure Iran sanctions enforced: Pompeo
16
September 2020
US
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday the US would return to the
United Nations to reimpose sanctions on Iran next week and would do all it
needed to do to make sure those sanctions are enforced.
Pompeo
made the comments in a joint news conference in Washington with British Foreign
Secretary Dominic Raab.
Pompeo
said last month he had triggered a 30-day process to reimpose all UN sanctions
on Iran by lodging a complaint with the Security Council accusing Tehran of
breaching a 2015 nuclear deal.
Pompeo
has said sanctions should be reimposed from Sunday.
But
13 of the 15 council members said the US move is void because Washington
withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal two years ago.
Pompeo
said Tuesday that America’s “European friends” did not support the proposed US
resolution of extending the UN arms embargo on Iran - put forward by the US
last month - because of fear and political calculations.
“Our
European allies fear that if they hold Iran accountable for its destabilizing
behavior, Iran will violate the [nuclear deal] even more in response,” he said
in statements to the US Virtual Iran Embassy.
“This
strategy of appeasement does nothing but play into Iran’s grand strategy,”
Pompeo said.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/09/16/US-will-do-all-it-needs-to-do-to-ensure-Iran-sanctions-enforced-Pompeo
--------
US
Secretary Pompeo criticizes France for policy on Iran, Hezbollah
15
September 2020
France’s
leadership is failing to stand up to Iran and its proxy Lebanese Hezbollah, US
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday.
France’s
President Emmanuel Macron has recently attracted attention for two high-profile
visits to Lebanon following the Beirut port explosion on August 4.
According
to reports in French newspaper Le Figaro, Macron met with a Hezbollah official
during his first trip, saying to Mohammed Raad: “I want to work with you to
change Lebanon but prove that you are Lebanese,” referring to the organization
supporting Iran’s regional policies.
In
remarks published on the US’ Virtual Iran Embassy, Pompeo called France’s
approach to Iran and Hezbollah “appeasement.”
Pompeo
questioned how France could vote against extending the UN arms embargo on Iran
and also have its president meet with a Hezbollah official in Beirut.
“How
could France vote down the arms embargo one week, and President Macron meet
with a senior Hizballah official in Beirut the next?” Pompeo said.
Designating
Hezbollah terrorist organization
Pompeo
criticized France’s refusal to designate “all of Hizballah a terrorist
organization, as other European nations have done.”
Earlier
this year, both the UK and Germany designated the entire Hezbollah a terror
organization.
Like
France and the European Union, both countries previously had distinguished
between Hezbollah’s political arm and military units.
“Paris
maintains the fiction that there is a ‘political wing’ of Hizballah, when all
of it is controlled by a single terrorist, Hassan Nasrallah,” said Pompeo,
adding that he backs a group of 27 prominent French figures, who recently
called for France to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization in an article
published in Le Figaro.
Macron
has rejected criticism of his approach, saying he wants to avoid “escalation.”
Extending
UN arms embargo on Iran
France,
in addition to the UK and Germany, did not support the US resolution to extend
the UN arms embargo on Iran, resulting in it failing to pass the UN Security
Council vote.
The
current UN arms embargo on Iran is set to expire next month, despite the US and
allies in the region pointing to the dangers of allowing Iran to purchase arms
considering its destabilizing regional activities.
Pompeo
said America’s “European friends” did not support the “reasonable proposal”
because of fear and political calculations.
“Our
European allies fear that if they hold Iran accountable for its destabilizing
behavior, Iran will violate the [nuclear deal] even more in response,” he said.
“This
strategy of appeasement does nothing but play into Iran’s grand strategy,”
Pompeo said.
France
is one of the partners to the Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and has advocated for the preservation of
the deal that the Trump administration exited in 2018 - despite Tehran
violating the deal multiple times since then.
“The
question is whether France is willing to join us to stand up to Iran and secure
peace and regional stability,” Pompeo said.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/09/15/US-Secretary-Pompeo-criticizes-France-for-policy-on-Iran-Hezbollah
--------
NJ
man admits to supporting foreign terrorist organization
15
September 2020
A
Bernards man admitted in federal court Tuesday to concealing his attempts to
provide support to Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization.
Jonathan
Xie, 21, of the Basking Ridge section, pleaded guilty via video conference
before U.S. District Judge Michael Shipp to one count of concealing attempts to
provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, U.S.
Attorney Craig Carpenito said in a statement.
Xie
admitted that he knowingly concealed and disguised the nature, location,
source, ownership and control of the attempt to provide material support and
resources to Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyya and the Islamic Resistance
Movement, an organization that is commonly referred to as Hamas, according to
the statement.
Xie
admitted that he knew Hamas was a designated foreign terrorist organization and
has engaged in terrorist activities. He said he attempted to conceal the
attempted support believing it would be used to commit or assist in the
commission of a violent act, the statement said.
In
December 2018, Xie sent $100 via Moneygram to an individual in Gaza who Xie
believed to be a member of the Al-Qassam Brigades — a faction of Hamas that has
conducted attacks, to include suicide bombings against civilian targets inside
Israel, according to the statement.
Around
the same time that Xie sent the money, he posted on his Instagram account:
“Just donated $100 to Hamas. Pretty sure it was illegal but I don’t give a
damn," according to the statement.
In
April 2019, Xie appeared in an Instagram Live video wearing a black ski mask
and stated that he was against "Zionism and the neo-liberal
establishment," the statement said.
When
asked by another participant in the video if he would go to Gaza and join
Hamas, Xie stated, “Yes, If I could find a way,” the statement said.
Later
in the video, Xie displayed a Hamas flag and retrieved a handgun. He then said,
“I’m gonna go to the [expletive] pro-Israel march and I’m going to shoot
everybody,” according to the statement.
In
subsequent Instagram posts, Xie stated, “I want to shoot the pro-israel
demonstrators ... you can get a gun and shoot your way through or use a vehicle
and ram people ... all you need is a gun or vehicle to go on a rampage ... I do
not care if security forces come after me, they will have to put a bullet in my
head to stop me,” the statement said.
In
April 2019, Xie sent a link to a website for the Al-Qassam Brigades to an
undercover FBI employee online.
Xie
described the website as a “Hamas” website and said he had previously sent a
donation to the group.
Xie
then sent screenshots of the website to the undercover employee and
demonstrated how to use a new feature on the website that allows donations to
be sent via Bitcoin. On April 18, 2019, when the undercover employee asked
whether Bitcoin was anonymous, Xie responded: “yah… i think thats why hamas is
using it now because money transfer is not that anonymous.”
The
count of concealing attempted material support carries a maximum potential
penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or
loss from the offense.
https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/news/crime/jersey-mayhem/2020/09/15/nj-man-admits-supporting-foreign-terrorist-organization-hamas/5809406002/?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1528355_
--------
Hundreds
gather to honour man stabbed to death outside Toronto mosque
Sep
16, 2020
Mohamed-Aslim
Zafis spent his last hours as he did countless ones before — volunteering at a
northwest Toronto mosque and helping those in need.
Zafis,
58, was remembered by friends and family at his funeral on Wednesday as a
"kind, gentle soul" who, even on the day he was killed, handed out
food to the hungry and worked to keep his fellow worshippers safe.
"He
was an incredible man," Zafis's nephew, Zahir Zafis, said through tears.
"He
never had any negative thoughts or words."
Several
hundred mourners gathered in the parking lot of the International Muslim
Organization in Etobicoke to say goodbye to Zafis, just metres away from where
he was stabbed to death on Saturday evening.
The
attack — which police have said bears many similarities to another killing just
days earlier — happened as Zafis was controlling entry to the mosque.
Had
just finished prayers before attack
He
had just finished saying the sunset prayers before he returned to his usual
post outside the mosque, where he ensured everyone who entered wore a mask and
respected COVID-19 physical distancing rules.
Imam
Ayman Taher said he chatted with Zafis just minutes before the attack, when
they discussed a local Syrian family who had just lost a child. Zafis had
prepared food for the family, he told Taher, to help them through the difficult
time.
Giving
food was important Zafis, his friends said. He spent years volunteering at a
nearby food bank, preparing hampers for the hungry, and recently held a
drive-through barbecue for children before they returned to school, Taher said.
He
also kept candies in his pockets that he gave out to children as a treat.
Zafis
was born in Guyana and still has many family members there, his nephews said.
The
parking lot at the mosque was a place of love for Zafis, said Mustafa Farooq,
the CEO of the National Council of Canadian Muslims.
"It
was here in the parking lot he'd sit with his friends and sip Pepsi with lemon
slices," Farooq said.
"He'd
distribute food to the poor, to the needy, in this parking lot."
'Found
peace and happiness' in doing work of God
Imam
Junaid Bhaiyat said Friday morning will be especially difficult.
Zafis
sent a message to him, and many others, every Friday between 12:15 a.m. and
12:23 a.m., like clockwork, wishing all "a blessed and happy Friday."
"Tomorrow
night I'm going to wait for that message — and the week after that, and the
week after that — and it's not going to come," Bhaiyat said.
Zameer
Zafis said his uncle devoted much of his life to his faith.
"He
found peace and happiness doing the work of Allah," he said.
"We
also ask of you at this time to pray that this individual be brought to
justice, but also to forgive him for the sin that he has committed."
Police
still investigating motive
The
head of the Toronto police homicide squad said Monday they have no evidence
Zafis's killing was motivated by hate,
but acknowledged it is a possibility.
Insp.
Hank Idsinga also said police cannot discount the homicide could be the work of
a serial killer.
The
mosque has urged its worshippers to remain vigilant of their surroundings.
"No
one can intimidate us and prevent us from attending our place of worship,"
Taher said.
Supt.
Ron Taverner told mourners police are working 24 hours a day to try to capture
the killer.
"We
are taking every measure possible," he said.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-mosque-stabbing-1.5726993?cmp=rss
--------
Europe
UK
repatriates British child from Syria despite ISIS policy
16
September 2020
Britain
said on Wednesday it had repatriated a child from Syria, one of dozens of
British children thought to be trapped in the war-torn country.
British
officials have previously faced criticism for refusing to help nationals including
children to return home after they or their parents were accused of joining the
ISIS militant group.
“Pleased
we have been able to bring home a British child from Syria,” British Foreign
Secretary Dominic Raab said on Twitter.
For
all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
“Safely
facilitating the return of orphans or unaccompanied British children, where
possible, is the right thing to do.”
The
foreign ministry declined to provide further details, citing reporting
restrictions on cases involving minors.
Save
the Children said in a report last year that more than 60 British children were
stranded in northeast Syria.
Change
from Shamima Begum policy
The
UK has taken a strict approach, stripping citizenship from some of those
suspected of travelling to support ISIS.
Among
the most high profile cases is that of Shamima Begum who was 15 when she and
two other schoolgirls from east London left to join ISIS in 2015.
She
claims to have married a Dutch convert soon after arriving in ISIS-held
territory who subsequently died.
Begum,
now 20 and marooned in a refugee camp, was discovered nine months pregnant in
another camp in February last year, and her newborn baby died soon after she
gave birth.
Two
of her other children also died under ISIS rule.
Britain
annulled her UK citizenship on national security grounds after an outcry led by
right-wing media but Begum has mounted a legal challenge of the decision.
The
UK supreme court is set to decide on whether she can return to Britain to fight
the case in court.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/09/16/UK-repatriates-British-child-from-Syria-despite-ISIS-policy
--------
Turkey
open to ‘constructive’ talks but determined on east Med, Erdogan tells Merkel
16
September 2020
Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told German Chancellor Angela Merkel on
Wednesday that Ankara was open to “constructive” talks but would remain
determined in its eastern Mediterranean standoff with Greece.
The
videoconference call between the two leaders came ahead of an EU summit next
week at which the bloc will discuss imposing sanctions on Turkey over its
search for energy in waters claimed by Cyprus and Greece.
For
all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
Germany
has taken the lead in trying to mediate an end to a conflict that has seen the
two NATO neighbors stage rival air and sea drills in strategic waters between
Cyprus and Crete.
The
Turkish presidency said Erdogan told Merkel that the dispute “could be resolved
through negotiations... provided that a constructive approach, based on
fairness, prevails.”
Erdogan
“underscored that he will continue to implement a decisive and active policy
with regard to Turkey’s rights,” his office said.
Turkey
believes that the EU unfairly backs Greece in a maritime dispute that stretches
back decades but which gained added importance with the discovery of large
natural gas deposits in recent years.
The
standoff appeared to be cooling off when Turkey’s Oruc Reis research vessel and
its accompanying fleet of warships ended their month-long mission near a Greek
island and pulled back to shore last weekend.
But
Turkey stressed that the vessel was only undergoing planned maintenance and
would soon continue its exploration in the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
The
Turkish navy on Tuesday also announced the extension of the Yavuz drillship’s
stay in disputed waters near Cyprus until October 12.
The
Turkish and Greek war games have drawn in EU powers and even the naval assets
of the United States and the United Arab Emirates.
NATO
is hosting periodic rounds of technical talks aimed at opening up channels of
communication that could keep Greece and Turkey from accidentally going to war.
Their
two navies’ warships collided on August 12 in an incident that prompted Erdogan
to warn Greece of a “heavy price” to pay were Turkish ships ever attacked.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/09/16/Turkey-open-to-constructive-talks-but-determined-on-east-Med-Erdogan-tells-Merkel
--------
EU
chief pledges to defend Cyprus rights in Turkey standoff
16
September 2020
European
Council chief Charles Michel pledged Wednesday that the bloc will defend the
rights of member state Cyprus in its standoff with Turkey over maritime and
energy rights.
Michel’s
visit to the island comes a day after Turkey said its Yavuz drillship would
continue its search for oil and gas off Cyprus until October 12, despite
international calls to withdraw.
The
top EU official is in Cyprus ahead of an emergency meeting of EU leaders next
week that will address Turkish actions in the eastern Mediterranean with
sanctions a possibility.
For
all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
“The
European Union stands in solidarity with Cyprus as it faces a grave situation.
That is why we have decided to call a summit on relations with Turkey,” Michel
told reporters after meeting Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades.
“I
believe we must be very firm when it comes to defending the rights of all
member states, including Cyprus.”
Turkey,
Greece and Cyprus have been locked in a dispute over offshore energy rights and
maritime borders in the region, with Ankara infuriating the EU allies by
sending research ships with naval escorts to work in contested waters.
Although
Cyprus has been an EU member since 2004, its jurisdiction is not recognized by
Turkey, which dismisses the island’s internationally recognized government as
an exclusively Greek Cypriot administration.
There
have been fears of conflict erupting and Cyprus is pressing the rest of the EU
to impose fresh sanctions on Ankara over the drilling.
Michel
said Brussels did not want to send the message that this was a dispute
involving only Greece and Cyprus with Turkey as it affected the “rights of the
EU.”
Cyprus’s
president said Michel’s visit comes at an “extremely worrisome” time as “Turkey
continues to violate our maritime zones” with “illegal” drilling.
He
said the bloc should show its readiness to take action to protect its members’
rights.
“Respect
for the sovereignty of all member states should remain a rule that no one can
ignore or show contempt for,” Anastasiades said.
“As
long as there are illegal actions against member states, the EU’s response
should be immediate.”
Turkey
said the Yavuz will be accompanied by three other Turkish ships, according to a
maritime notice that added “all vessels are strongly advised not to enter” the
area.
Nicosia
said such maritime notices within its jurisdiction were illegal.
Cyprus
has been divided since 1974 when Turkey occupied its northern third in response
to an Athens-inspired coup in Nicosia seeking to unite the whole island with
Greece.
A
breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in the north of the island is recognised only
by Ankara.
Turkey
insists that the minority community’s interests must be protected and has
called for the exploitation of offshore oil and gas reserves to be put off
until an agreement on reunifying the island has been reached in UN-backed
talks.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/09/16/EU-chief-pledges-to-defend-Cyprus-rights-in-Turkey-standoff-
--------
France
Arrests Four Ex-Directors Of Shia Zahra Centre Founded By Hezbollah Supporter
16
September 2020
Four
former directors of a major Shia Muslim center in France have been arrested on
suspicion of continuing to run the association despite its dissolution over
alleged support for extremist violence, a judicial source said Wednesday.
The
Zahra Centre in northern France was founded in 2009 by Yahia Gouasmi, a religious
figure who has spoken in support of Iran-backed Lebanese militant group
Hezbollah.
It
was shuttered in March last year by the French government for alleged calls to
armed jihadism and condoning violence by Hezbollah and other organisations
classified as terror groups.
The
center is also alleged to have disseminated hate speech, anti-semitism and to
have incited violence.
The
judicial source told AFP that four former leaders of the centre were taken into
custody on Tuesday, though one has been freed for health reasons.
Prosecutors
are investigating the group for "participation in or maintenance of a
dissolved association."
The
four are accused of preaching on site and on social media, the prosecution
service said.
In
October 2018, French police launched a dawn anti-terror raid on the centre as
well as the homes of its directors, yielding a cache of illegal firearms.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/09/16/France-arrests-four-ex-directors-of-Shia-Zahra-Center-founded-by-Hezbollah-supporter
--------
Palestinian
doctor caught in ‘dirty squabble’ between MI5 and New IRA
16
September 2020
A
terrorism trial in Northern Ireland has shed light on the secret but ferocious
war between the British Security Service (MI5) and so-called dissident militant
Irish Republicans.
At
the center of the trial is a Palestinian man, one Dr Issam Bassalat, who not
only maintains his innocence, but in fact claims he is a victim of a “dirty
squabble” between MI5 and so-called dissident Republicans.
Edinburgh-based
Dr Bassalat made the incendiary claim during an unsuccessful bail application
at Dungannon Magistrates Court.
The
prosecution claims that Dr Bassalat, 62, was an intrinsic part of a plan by the
New IRA organization to procure weapons.
He is
accused of attending an alleged New IRA leadership meeting in Omagh in July
that was bugged by MI5.
For
his part, Dr Bassalat denies all charges and claims he was “misled” into
attending the meeting by an alleged MI5 agent, Dennis McFadden, who had
penetrated the New IRA group.
Dr
Bassalat was arrested at Heathrow Airport in August.
Upon
hearing evidence from both sides the trial judge refused to release Dr Bassalat
on bail on the grounds that he poses a flight risk.
The
judge made the following statement: “The nature of the alleged offending and
taking note of the prevalence of terrorist offences in Northern Ireland and
worldwide, and the nature of those who commit such acts, leads me to find a
real risk of further offending".
The
British media refers to the New IRA and sister organizations, such as the
Continuity IRA, as “dissidents” with a view to creating schism and division
among the Irish Republican community.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/09/16/634259/UK-Northern-Ireland-New-IRA-Terrorism-Trial
--------
Explosives
accused 'interested in white supremacy'
15
September 2020
A man
accused of storing grenades, mines and chemical weapons at his farm had an
interest in Nazi Germany and white supremacy, a court has heard.
Russell
Wadge was charged after counter-terrorism police raided his property in
Trimsaran, Carmarthenshire.
Newport
Crown Court heard large stocks of chemicals found in June 2019, "could
kill or injure" when combined.
Mr
Wadge, 58, denies 28 charges of possessing explosive devices and chemical
weapons.
The
court heard Mr Wadge "proudly admitted" making hydrogen cyanide,
"one of the most rapidly acting poisons known to man".
'Cyanide
in freezer'
Tom
Little QC, prosecuting, said: "We need to consider the B - word - not
Boris but Brexit.
"There
were those frustrated by the delays to the Brexit process who were agitating,
but they did not have access to this range of chemicals."
He
said hydrogen cyanide was discovered in the freezer, and a pint-glass
containing a liquid with a sticker indicating poison was found "between
the salad cream and ginger beer" in the fridge.
The
jury heard internet searches showed significant interest in the white
supremacist terror attack in New Zealand in 2019.
When
questioned by police, Mr Wadge said he did not believe in any extremism and had
a "keen interest" in chemistry.
However,
Mr Little said: "This is not a case about naïve enthusiasm in chemistry -
we say it is so much more."
The
jury heard books describing how to make improvised plastic explosives, three
jars of gunpowder and the ingredients to make a "very dangerous
explosive" called TATP (triacetone triperoxide), as used in the Manchester
Arena bombing, were found.
Boxes
of grenades, mines and scale drawings of a KGB weapon to deploy hydrogen
cyanide were also discovered and Mr Wadge had researched an antidote, Mr Little
said.
The
prosecution said the accused man told police, "if it's dodgy or poison, I
love it" and sought out restricted information for "the thrill or
buzz of it".
Mr
Wadge earlier admitted five charges of unlawful possession of poisonous
chemicals without a licence.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-54165276?utm_source=iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1528355_
--------
Southeast Asia
Muhyiddin
unveils Perikatan-led Opposition manifesto that aims to address Sabah’s woes
16
Sep 2020
BY
JULIA CHAN
KOTA
KINABALU, Sept 16 — Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin today unveiled Gabungan Rakyat
Sabah’s (GRS) manifesto that focuses on reviving the state’s economy, which he said
can only be fulfilled if the federal and state governments work together.
Dangling
the carrot of federal funding in front of voters as crucial to fulfilling the
promises, the Perikatan Nasional chairman said that Sabah, with its dispersed
population and vast land areas, needed major development to take it to the next
level.
“The
manifesto was given to me to announce as prime minister because it involves
cooperation between the state and federal governments, which is of utmost
importance,” he said.
The nine
thrusts contained in GRS’ manifesto are: infrastructure, Sabah rights,
employment, youth, health, civil service, prosperity, education, security,
human capital and women development.
GRS
comprises Perikatan Nasional (PN), Barisan Nasional (BN) and Parti Bersatu
Sabah (PBS).
“I
believe this is what Sabahans want. Things are hard right now, and in these
unprecedented times, we cannot just promise the usual like other elections.
“So
this is our total commitment to raise Sabahans’ livelihoods to the next level,”
he said during the manifesto’s launch at Sutera Harbour Resort here today where
members of the Opposition alliance had gathered.
Meanwhile,
Sabah PN chief Datuk Hajiji Noor described the manifesto as the Opposition’s
main plan to revive the economy after it was allegedly left in shambles by the
Warisan government.
“We
are offering much-needed facilities and infrastructure,” he said.
When
pushed for a timeline, he said that this was promised for the coming five-year
term.
“We
cannot do this in one or two years. Things like infrastructure take time. Roads
can take two to three years to complete. If we have allocations, we can do it.
We need a continuous mandate to ensure the manifesto promises are achieved,” he
said.
The
16th Sabah state election will take place on September 26 where some 16 parties
are vying for votes in 73 seats.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/09/16/perikatan-led-opposition-unveils-manifesto-that-it-says-will-address-sabahs/1903791
--------
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