United Kingdom Has Declared Pak Nobel Laureate Dr Abdus Salam’s House in London a National Heritage Site
New Age Islam News Bureau
14 December 2020
Image © English Heritage
------
• Police in India Have Rounded Up Muslim Men and
Disrupted Interfaith Marriage Ceremonies under New Laws Prohibiting So-Called
‘Love Jihad’
• Pakistani Doctor, Dr Naqeeb Khalid Based In Toronto,
Develops Smartphone-Based Covid-19 Test
• Hefazat-e-Islam Playing the Role That
Jamaat-e-Islami Played During The 1971 Liberation War: Advisor to PM
• ‘Ground-Breaking Reform’ As Moroccan Schools to
Teach Jewish History
• Hadi Plays Down Hindu Temple Demolition In PAS-Led
Kedah, Insists Legal And Not Religious Problem
• Saudi Played Role in Morocco-Israel Normalization:
Report
• Iran Says Morocco Israel Deal ‘Betrayal of Islam’
• US Court Rejects Bail Plea of 26/11 Accused Tahawwur
Rana
Europe
• United Kingdom Has Declared Pak Nobel Laureate Dr
Abdus Salam’s House in London a National Heritage Site
• Rights Groups Urge UK to Join Rohingya Case at ICJ
• French support for Haftar is shame: Libyan minister
• French FM ahead of Macron visit: Lebanon’s collapse
is like the Titanic’s sinking
• Four Azerbaijan soldiers killed in areas near
Nagorno-Karabakh region
• Turkish foreign minister recalls Bosnian War
• Azerbaijan criticizes OSCE Minsk group on Karabakh
• Italy legislature severs ties with Egyptian
parliament
--------
India
• Police in India Have Rounded Up Muslim Men and Disrupted
Interfaith Marriage Ceremonies under New Laws Prohibiting So-Called ‘Love
Jihad’
• Saudi Deported Indians For Protesting Against
Narendra Modi's Anti-Muslim Register
• Pakistan violates ceasefire along IB, LoC
• Pakistan Made another Attempt To Push Terrorists
Into Kashmir To Disturb Ongoing Polls: Jammu and Kashmir Police DGP
-------
Pakistan
• Pakistani Doctor, Dr Naqeeb Khalid Based In Toronto,
Develops Smartphone-Based Covid-19 Test
• Thousands Gather in Pakistan, Seeking End to Imran
Khan’s Government
• My narrative is the same as Quaid-i-Azam's, says
Nawaz at PDM's Lahore power show
• Pak Opposition alliance holds its final rally,
announces long march to force PM Imran Khan to resign
• Impossible but Pakistan army wants to wipe out
Mohajirs, says MQM founder
--------
South Asia
• Hefazat-e-Islam Playing the Role That
Jamaat-e-Islami Played During The 1971 Liberation War: Advisor to PM
• Bangladesh govt approves primary list of 1,222
martyred intellectuals
• 83 Taliban Killed in MoD Operations
• Scores Busted over Multiple Charges across
Afghanistan
• Miller Says Has ‘Orders to Reduce U.S. Military
Presence’ in Afghanistan
-----
Africa
• ‘Ground-Breaking Reform’ As Moroccan Schools to
Teach Jewish History
• Prominent Nigerian Cleric: Sheikh Zakzaky Still
Imprisoned at Riyadh’s Order
• Sudan’s PM visits Ethiopia, as Tigray refugees top
50,000
• Nigerian authorities step up efforts to rescue
kidnapped students
• At least 27 killed in latest Boko Haram attack in
Niger
• Muslim scholars call for release of Nigerian cleric
Sheikh Zakzaky
• Muslim scholars slam Morocco’s normalization of ties
with Israel
• Nigerian troops kill 20 Boko Haram terrorists
• Boko Haram kills at least 27 in southeast Niger
--------
Southeast Asia
• Hadi Plays Down Hindu Temple Demolition In PAS-Led
Kedah, Insists Legal And Not Religious Problem
• Indonesia Arrests Firebrand Islamist Cleric For
Breaching Coronavirus Restrictions
• Muis urges Muslims to take Covid-19 vaccine once
available, found to be safe and effective
• What Hardline Islamic Cleric Rizieq Shihab’s Return
Means for Indonesian Politics
• Professor Wan Maseri’s teachings to be referred to
National Fatwa Council
• Indonesian police arrest top Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah
Islamiah militant
--------
Arab World
• Saudi Played Role in Morocco-Israel Normalization:
Report
• ‘Fake News’ In Lebanon Causes Anxiety, Panic For
Those Bombarded With Misinformation
• UAE, Israel export credit agencies sign agreement
following peace deal
• After Israel visit, Emiratis return to UAE with
positive views of Palestinians
• One sheriff in town: Saudi Arabia launches 'mini
Ritz' crackdown, sparks terror
• Explosion hits tanker off Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah
• Turkish-backed militants attack areas in
northeastern Syria
• US plan to blacklist Iraqi Badr Organization as
terrorist meant to protect Israel: Official
• Syrian media: US military tankers smuggle crude oil
from Hasakah to Iraq again
--------
Mideast
• Iran Says Morocco Israel Deal ‘Betrayal of Islam’
• Iran jails British-Iranian researcher for 9 years
for ‘subversive’ research work
• Iran forum postponed as journalist, diplomats
withdraw over journalist’s execution
• ‘Business as usual with Iran’ will be mistake:
Israel’s Netanyahu
• Hamas says armed struggle only way to confront
'Zionist enemy'
• Israeli forces arrest dozens of Palestinians in West
Bank, al-Quds
• Palestinians condemn Israel-Morocco normalisation
deal
• Turkey to send ambassador to Israel for first time
in two years: Paper
• UAE, Bahrain envoys to US celebrate Jewish holiday
--------
North America
• US Court Rejects Bail Plea of 26/11 Accused Tahawwur
Rana
• Biden's incoming national security aide condemns
Iran’s execution of journalist
• US officially removes Sudan from State Sponsor of
Terror list: Embassy
• Israeli diplomat warns Biden against resuming UNRWA
funding
• US confirms strike on Taliban in Afghanistan's Zhari
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/united-kingdom-declared-pak-nobel/d/123753
--------
United Kingdom Has Declared Pak Nobel Laureate Dr
Abdus Salam’s House In London A National Heritage Site
Dec 13, 2020
Image © English Heritage
------
Islamabad: The United Kingdom has declared Pakistani
Nobel laureate Dr Abdus Salam’s house in London a national heritage site. Dr
Salam, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contribution to the electroweak
unification theory in 1979, has always remained an unpopular figure in Pakistan
due to his Ahmadi faith.
A Blue Plaque has been installed on the house in
Putney, which Dr Salam used as his base in London from 1957 until his death in
1996. “Abdus Salam 1926-1996, Physicist, Nobel Laureate and Champion of Science
in developing countries, lived here,” the plaque reads.
Dr Salam was a passionate promoter of science
education in the developing world and had founded the International Centre for
Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy, in 1964, where scientists from
developing countries would be able to come regularly to interact with leaders
in the field.
Dr Salam won accolades all over the world for his
groundbreaking research in theoretical physics but became a victim of the
narrow-mindedness of Pakistani society due to his faith. The Ahmadi community
feels he was betrayed.
After his death, the local administration had asked
the Ahmadi community to remove the word ‘Muslim’ from the inscription on his
grave which said “the first Muslim Nobel laureate”. The word had been painted
over, and it now reads as “the first Nobel laureate.”
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/pak-nobel-laureates-london-home-now-national-heritage-site/articleshow/79710094.cms
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Police in India Have Rounded Up Muslim Men and
Disrupted Interfaith Marriage Ceremonies under New Laws Prohibiting So-Called
‘Love Jihad’
Hannah Ellis-Petersen South Asia correspondent
Mon 14 Dec 2020
Protests in Bengaluru this
month over the law prohibiting forced religious conversions. Photograph: Aijaz
--------
Police in India have rounded up Muslim men and
disrupted interfaith marriage ceremonies under new laws prohibiting so-called
“love jihad”.
In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, police have
begun cracking down on marriages between Muslims and Hindus and have arrested
at least 10 Muslim men under a law that prohibits forced religious conversions.
“Love jihad” is a Hindu rightwing conspiracy theory
claiming that Muslim men lure Hindu women into marriage in order to force their
conversion to Islam. Though the central government admitted in February it had
no official records of any incidents of the practice, the theory has gained so
much traction in India that it has been used to justify legislation enacted in
Uttar Pradesh and is proposed in four other Indian states.
This week a marriage between two Muslims was stopped
by police in Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh, after a tipoff by a Hindu rightwing
group. The police stormed the ceremony and arrested Haider Ali, 39, who was
kept in custody overnight and alleged that the police tortured him for hours
using a leather belt. It was only after the family produced evidence that his
bride was Muslim by birth that they released Ali.
The Uttar Pradesh crackdown has fuelled fears that the
“love jihad” law is being used to target Muslims and outlaw consensual
interfaith marriage in Uttar Pradesh. No Hindus have been arrested under the
new law.
A day after the law was enacted in early December,
police in the city of Lucknow violently halted a wedding ceremony between a
Hindu woman, Raina Gupta, and a Muslim man, Mohammad Asif, that was to include
both Hindu and Muslim rituals. The families, who supported the union, said
neither was going to convert religion, but the wedding was still prevented from
going ahead.
In another case, a Muslim man, Owais Ahmad, was
arrested last week and sentenced to 14 days judicial custody for allegedly
trying to pressure a Muslim woman into converting to Islam and eloping in 2019,
following a case filed by her father. The woman is now married to a Hindu man,
and Ahmad said he had “no link with the woman”.
A 27-year-old Muslim man, Rashid, and his brother were
arrested last week in Moradabad. They had been attempting to register Rashid’s
marriage to a 22-year-old Hindu woman, Muskan Jahan, who had converted to Islam
prior to the wedding. As the trio visited a lawyer, they were surrounded by
members of a rightwing Hindu group, Bajrang Dal, who accosted them and brought
them to the police station.
Rashid remains in jail in Uttar Pradesh on charges of
forcible conversion of his wife, while Jahan was taken to a shelter by the
police. Addressing the Bajrang Dal members as they surrounded her, Jahan denied
any coercion. “I am an adult, I am 22 years old. I got married of my own free
will,” she said.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/14/muslims-targeted-under-indian-states-love-jihad-law
--------
Pakistani Doctor, Dr Naqeeb Khalid Based In Toronto,
Develops Smartphone-Based Covid-19 Test
Amin Ahmed
14 Dec 2020
Dr Naqeeb Khalid.
SCREENGRAB
----
ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani doctor based in Toronto has
introduced an instant Covid-19 diagnostic test using a smartphone.
Pakistan High Commissioner to Canada Raza Bashir Tarar
has congratulated Dr Naqeeb Khalid for his extraordinary achievement.
In a video conversation with Dr Naqeeb Khalid who led
the development of smartphone-based diagnostic test for Covid-19 as Director of
Medical Device Programme at the Montreal-based Two-Photon Research Inc., the high
commissioner said the idea of the Covid test being displayed and communicated
by the smartphone was novel and laudable.
He expressed the hope that such a quick, hassle-free,
accessible and affordable invention would be of immense help to the humanity in
overcoming the current pandemic and fighting viruses causing tropical diseases
such as dengue etc.
The high commissioner said that clinical trials of the
innovation would prove its efficacy for the Covid-19 test and pave the way for
necessary approvals before being put to use at the mass level.
He conveyed his best wishes to Dr Naqeeb Khalid and
his brother Najeeb Khalid who collaborated with him due to his background in a
broad range of engineering and science disciplines.
Dr Naqeeb Khalid, who graduated from King Edward
Medical University in 1983, before acquiring experience in invention of medical
devices and systems, told the high commissioner that his innovation was based
on a digital platform that displayed the result instantly on any smartphone and
can also communicate or store the results along with time and GPS information.
A smartphone App will be available for download from
the AppStore. “Instant, accurate and low-cost testing that does not rely on
laboratory testing is essential in containing the pandemic and together with
vaccines, we can control the Covid-19 outbreak and return our lives and
economies to normal,” said Najeeb Khalid.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1595661/pakistani-doctor-develops-smartphone-based-covid-19-test
--------
Hefazat-e-Islam Playing the Role That Jamaat-e-Islami
Played During The 1971 Liberation War: Advisor to PM
December 13th, 2020
Hefazat-e-Islam is opposing a government plan to
install statues of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed Joy has said that hardline group Hefazat-e-Islam,
by opposing Bangabandhu’s statue, is playing the role that Jamaat-e-Islami
played during the 1971 Liberation War.
The son and ICT Advisor to Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina made the remarks while describing the achievements in the 12 years of
the Awami League government’s “Digital Bangladesh” initiative at a webinar on
Saturday to mark the fourth Digital Bangladesh Day.
“We have been taking Bangladesh forward to transform
it into a modern, developing country,” he said.
“However, I’d like to conclude with a word of caution.
There is a group that has raised its head in a bid to take the country
backwards. They are threatening to transform Bangladesh into Afghanistan,”
added Joy.
“What do we call them? We call them Razakar. There was
the Jamaat in 1971, and now Hefazat-e-Islam is becoming the new Razakar,” he
remarked.
Hefazat-e-Islam and other radical Islamic groups are
opposing a government plan to install statues of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in
celebration of his birth centenary, citing that statues are forbidden in Islam.
Some political and cultural groups have responded by
protesting against the Islamists’ threat to tear down statues, and demanded
arrest of Islamist leaders for their offensive remarks about Bangabandhu.
“They dared to vandalize the statue of the Father of
the Nation Bangabandhu on his birth centenary. Attacking his statue means
attacking the spirit of our independence. Those who stand against Bangladesh
have carried out the attack,” said Joy, grandson of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
“Will we slip back into being that old country? No, we
won’t let it happen as long as the Awami League is in power. I would like to
say on behalf of the youth that we must eliminate this fundamentalist force.”
“We, Bangladesh Awami League, liberated the country
and modernized it. We’ve made Bangladesh a developing country by confronting
all the challenges. We know how to deal with the Razakar,” he furthered.
https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2020/12/13/joy-hefazat-e-islam-becoming-the-new-razakar
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‘Ground-Breaking Reform’ As Moroccan Schools to Teach
Jewish History
December 13, 2020
RABAT: Jewish history and culture in Morocco will soon
be part of the school curriculum – a “first” in the region and in the North
African country, where Islam is the state religion.
The decision “has the impact of a tsunami”, said Serge
Berdugo, secretary-general of the Council of Jewish Communities of Morocco.
It “is a first in the Arab world”, he told AFP from
Casablanca.
Prominent Nigerian Cleric: Sheikh Zakzaky Still
Imprisoned at Riyadh’s Order
For years, although the kingdom had no official
relationship with Israel, thousands of Jews of Moroccan origin visited the land
of their ancestors, to celebrate religious holidays or make pilgrimages,
including from Israel.
But Morocco this week became the fourth Arab nation
since August to announce a US-brokered deal to normalise relations with Israel,
following the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said liaison
offices would be reopened in Tel Aviv and Rabat, which Morocco closed in 2000
at the start of the second Palestinian uprising, and full diplomatic relations
would be established “as rapidly as possible”.
Morocco confirmed the deal, saying King Mohammed VI
had told outgoing US President Donald Trump his country had agreed to establish
diplomatic relations with Israel “with minimal delay”.
Inoculation against extremism
The decision to add Jewish history and culture to
lessons was discreetly launched before the diplomatic deal was announced.
Part of an ongoing revamp of Morocco’s school
curriculum since 2014, the lessons will be included from next term for children
in their final year of primary school, aged 11, the education ministry said.
The move aims to “highlight Morocco’s diverse
identity”, according to Fouad Chafiqi, head of academic programmes at the
ministry.
Morocco’s Jewish community has been present since
antiquity and grew over the centuries, particularly with the arrival of Jews
expelled from Spain by the Catholic kings after 1492.
At the end of the 1940s, Jewish Moroccans numbered
about 250,000 – some 10% of the population.
Many left after the creation of the state of Israel in
1948, and the community now numbers around 3,000, still the largest in North
Africa.
Jewish presence in Moroccan culture now appears in the
primary-level social education curriculum, in a section dedicated to Sultan
Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah, known as Mohammed III.
The 18th-century Alawite ruler chose the port of
Mogador and its fortress, built by Portuguese colonists, to establish the
coastal city of Essaouira.
Under his leadership, the diplomatic and commercial
centre became the only city in the Islamic world counting a majority Jewish
population, and at one point had 37 synagogues.
“While there was a Jewish presence in Morocco before
the 18th century, the only reliable historical records date back to that time,”
Chafiqi said.
Tolerance, diversity
Two US-based Jewish associations – the American
Sephardi Federation and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations – said they “worked closely with the Kingdom of Morocco and the
Moroccan Jewish community” on the “groundbreaking” academic reform.
“Ensuring Moroccan students learn about the totality
of their proud history of tolerance, including Morocco’s philo-Semitism, is an
inoculation against extremism,” leaders of the two organisations said in a
statement published on Twitter last month.
Also in November, Education Minister Said Amzazi and
the heads of two Moroccan associations signed a partnership agreement “for the
promotion of values of tolerance, diversity and coexistence in schools and
universities”.
The accord was symbolically inked at Essaouira’s
“House of Memory”, which celebrates the historic coexistence of the city’s
Jewish and Muslim communities.
Among those present was Andre Azoulay, a member of the
local Jewish community who is also an adviser to King Mohammed VI.
The king, Morocco’s “Commander of the Faithful”, has
pushed for a tolerant Islam that ensures freedom of worship for Jews and
foreign Christians.
In September 2018, at a UN roundtable, he emphasised
the role of education in the fight against racism and anti-Semitism.
Morocco “has never erased its Jewish memory,” said
Zhor Rehihil, curator of Casablanca’s Moroccan Jewish Museum – the only one of
its kind in the region.
History teacher Mohammed Hatimi said introducing
Jewish identity into Morocco’s education programme would help nurture “future
citizens conscious of their diverse heritage”.
The move will also be part of a revision of the
secondary school curriculum set for next year, according to Chafiqi from the
education ministry.
https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/world/2020/12/13/groundbreaking-reform-as-moroccan-schools-to-teach-jewish-history-and-culture/
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Hadi plays down Hindu temple demolition in PAS-led
Kedah, insists legal and not religious problem
13 Dec 2020
BY SOO WERN JUN
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 13 — Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang
asserted today that conflict between the PAS-led Kedah government and MIC over
the demolition of a Hindu temple in the state has been resolved.
The Islamist party president also defended the state
government’s demolition of the temple in Taman Bersatu, Kuala Kedah on December
1.
“It has already been resolved according to laws,” he
told reporters at the PAS headquarters.
He said the party has “discussed with MIC” but did not
elaborate on the outcome.
Hadi insisted the issue at stake was a legal matter
and not a religious one, again without elaborating.
A public spat broke out between PAS and MIC, the
Indian component party of ally Barisan Nasional, earlier this month.
MIC deputy president Datuk Seri M. Saravanan accused
Kedah Mentri Besar Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor of breaking a promise to inform him
if any temples were to be demolished in the state.
Penang Deputy Chief Minister ll P. Ramasamy said
Sanusi has proven himself to be a racist and religious extremist who should not
remain in power, as well as questioning the need to destroy temples to build
motorcycle parks or futsal courts.
On December 5, Sanusi chided MIC and DAP leaders for
making much noise over the temple demolition which he described as “a little
trouble”.
The mentri besar said the temple was demolished
because it was built on gazetted land, denying that his decision was prompted
by racial or religious prejudice.
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/12/13/hadi-plays-down-hindu-temple-demolition-in-pas-led-kedah-insists-legal-and/1931552
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Saudi played role in Morocco-Israel normalization:
Report
12 December 2020
Saudi Arabia has reportedly played a role in the
recent US-mediated normalization agreement between Morocco and the occupying
Israeli regime.
Citing unnamed diplomatic sources, Israel’s Channel 12
TV reported on Friday that Riyadh was involved in the deal, without elaborating
on details.
The report also said it was “very possible” that Saudi
Arabia would be prepared to normalize relations with Tel Aviv soon.
In a sign of Saudi support, a prominent newspaper
associated with the kingdom’s royal family put the Morocco-Israel accord on its
front page, according to the report.
Meanwhile, Israel’s Channel 13 TV reported that Saudi
Arabia was working together with the outgoing administration of US President
Donald Trump to get several other countries to sign deals with Israel, possibly
before president-elect Joe Biden takes office next month.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was following
the matter closely in a bid to prepare the ground for an eventual Saudi-Israel
deal, the report said, speculating that Oman and Indonesia would be next to
establish ties with Israel.
On Thursday, Trump tweeted that Morocco had decided to
normalize relations with Israel after Washington agreed to recognize Rabat’s
sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara.
Morocco became the fourth Arab country to take such a
controversial step in the past few months.
In mid-September, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu signed normalization pacts with Emirati Foreign Minister Sheikh
Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al
Zayani during an official ceremony hosted by Trump at the White House.
The following month, Trump said Israel and Sudan had
also established economic ties as a pathway toward normalized ties.
After Trump’s announcement on Morocco's normalization
with Israel, his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, said that an
Israel-Saudi agreement was inevitable and that the only issue that had to be
worked out was the timeframe.
“Israel and Saudi Arabia coming together and having
full normalization at this point is an inevitability, but the timeframe… is
something that has to be worked out,” he told reporters, noting that such a
deal would require “strong US leadership in the region.”
Palestinians have condemned the normalization
agreements with the Tel Aviv regime as a treacherous "stab in the
back" of their cause against the Israeli occupation.
Morocco-Israel normalization 'betrayal' of Palestine
On Friday, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, special assistant
to the speaker of Iran’s Parliament, denounced Rabat’s decision to establish
relations with Israel.
“Morocco announcing normalizing relations with the
fake entity occupying Jerusalem al-Quds is a betrayal and a stab in the back of
Palestinian resistance,” he tweeted. "Certainly, the Zionists will have no
place in the future of the region."
US to sell $1bn worth of weapons to Morocco
In a separate development on Friday, the White House
notified Congress of potential weapons sales to Morocco worth $1 billion.
The deal includes four MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones as
well as Hellfire, Paveway and JDAM precision-guided munitions, Reuters
reported, citing sources familiar with the notification.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/12/640565/Saudi-Arabia-Israel-Morocco-normalization
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Iran says Morocco Israel deal ‘betrayal of Islam’
12 Dec 2020
TEHRAN, Dec 12 — An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has condemned Morocco”s normalisation of ties with the
Islamic republic”s arch foe Israel, calling it a “betrayal of Islam”.
The kingdom on Thursday became the fourth Arab state
this year to normalise relations with Israel, in a deal announced by outgoing
US President Donald Trump.
In return, Washington fulfilled a decades-old goal of
Rabat by recognising its sovereignty over disputed Western Sahara.
“The deal between the triangle of America, Morocco and
the Zionist regime was done in exchange for Morocco’s betrayal of Islam (and)
the Palestinian cause, selling Muslims’ honour to international Zionism,”
foreign policy adviser Ali Akbar Velayati said on his official website Friday.
He added that the normalisation of ties with Israel
was “not a new thing” as the kingdom had maintained a liaison office in Israel
in the past.
Morocco follows the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and
Sudan in what the Trump administration calls the Abraham Accords.
Blasting all four, Velayati said they will “witness
popular uprisings in a not so distant future” as their “dependent, submissive
and authoritarian” leaders are unmasked.
US recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the
Western Sahara has infuriated the pro-independence Polisario Front, which
controls about a fifth of the vast region.
Rabat, which has close ties with Iran’s regional rival
Saudi Arabia, severed diplomatic relations with Tehran in 2018 accusing it of
backing the Polisario, a charge Iran denied. — AFP
https://www.malaymail.com/news/world/2020/12/12/iran-says-morocco-israel-deal-betrayal-of-islam/1931390
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US court rejects bail plea of 26/11 accused Tahawwur
Rana
Dec 14, 2020
WASHINGTON: A US court has denied the bail plea of
Pakistani-origin Canadian businessman Tahawwur Rana, a key accused in the 2008
Mumbai terror attack and declared a fugitive by India, asserting that he has
not negated the "risk of flight".
Rana, 59, a childhood friend of David Coleman Headley,
was rearrested on June 10 in Los Angeles on an extradition request by India for
his involvement in the Mumbai terror attack in which 166 people, including six
Americans, were killed.
Pakistani-American LeT terrorist Headley was involved
in plotting the 2008 Mumbai terror attack. He was made an approver in the case,
and is currently serving a 35-year prison term in the US for his role in the
attack.
Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Chooljian, the US District
Court of Los Angeles, in his order on December 10 said that Rana
"presented a robust bail package" and offered conditions that
significantly mitigate the risk of flight.
But the "Court cannot find that he has negated
the risk of flight" and as such granted the request of the US government
to the continued detention of Rana.
Meanwhile, the US government in the court has
supported India's request that the documents submitted by it in support of
extradition of Rana be not made public.
The extradition documents presented by India
apparently include information about Rana's involvement in the Mumbai terrorist
attack that would be shared with him.
"Although the United States has no affirmative
discovery obligations in extradition matters, in this case, it has agreed to
provide Rana a document in its possession from an unrelated 'state court'
proceeding in India. India has requested that the United States take steps to
limit public dissemination of this document," US Attorney Nicola T Hanna
said in a court submission on Friday.
Rana has informed the United States that he may seek
to introduce materials provided as discovery and labelled "general
discovery materials" and "sensitive discovery materials" in
United States v Kashmiri, Case in opposition of the United States' Request for
Extradition. These discovery materials are subject to a protective order issued
in the Northern District of Illinois, it said.
In his December 10 order, the judge said Rana was
currently facing multiple criminal charges emanating from India in connection
with alleged conduct by him that at least to some degree overlaps with and
formed a basis for federal criminal charges on which Rana was tried in Chicago
and relates to the November 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai.
Rana in his bail plea said that his health is in poor
condition, including two heart attack while in custody and two weeks of illness
early this year. Rana argued that he was not a danger to the community – which
was opposed by the US government.
The judge noted that Rana did not perform any violent
acts himself and instead provided material support to the Denmark plot by
furnishing Headley with business cards, supporting his business cover, and
providing him with logistical support for his travels and plots.
The nature of the offenses charged in India – which
relate to the Mumbai attack – also weigh in favour of finding that Rana is a
danger to the community, though the weight of the evidence on the same is far
less conclusive, she wrote.
The conspiracy to commit murder and murder charges are
obviously extremely serious and the letters filed by the government bring home
the devastating impact the Mumbai attack had and continue to have on the
victims and their families, the judge wrote.
The weight of the evidence presented to date against
Rana on such charges is not overwhelming. The other two charges – Conspiracy to
Commit Forgery for the Purpose of Cheating and the Conspiracy to Use as Genuine
a Forged Document or Electronic Record – are far less serious in and of
themselves – but the weight of the evidence presented to date against Rana as
to those charges is far stronger, Chooljian wrote.
There is no question in the Court's mind that given
Rana's significant foreign ties, particularly to Canada, and the potential
death penalty awaiting him in India if he is extradited on and convicted of the
most serious pending charges, that Rana is a flight risk, the judge wrote.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/us-court-rejects-bail-plea-of-26/11-accused-tahawwur-rana/articleshow/79716383.cms
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Europe
Rights groups urge UK to join Rohingya case at ICJ
Büsra Nur Bilgiç Çakmak
12.12.2020
International human rights organizations on Friday
urged the UK to support the genocide case against Myanmar at the International
Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.
“In September, the Netherlands and Canada said they
were planning to make a formal intervention in the case. We now urge the
British government to also throw its weight behind the case,” said the
statement issued by the human rights groups including the European Rohingya
Council and Free Rohingya Coalition.
The groups added that it was becoming clear that the
Myanmar government has no intention to follow the provisional measures set out
by the court.
“More pressure from the international community is
needed to end the ongoing genocide, and to assure accountability for the
gravest of international crimes,” it added.
In November 2019, Gambia filed the petition at the ICJ
against Myanmar for failing to prevent or punish acts of genocide against
Rohingya Muslims.
Earlier in January, the ICJ issued its “provisional
measures” to Myanmar which required the Buddhist-majority country to prevent
genocidal acts, ensure military and police forces do not commit genocidal acts,
preserve all evidence of genocidal acts, and report on compliance with these
provisional measures.
Myanmar is supposed to file the reports to the court
after every six months. The first one was filed in May.
The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world’s most
persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were
killed in communal violence in 2012.
According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000
Rohingya refugees, mostly women, and children fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh
after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in
August 2017, pushing the number of persecuted people in Bangladesh above 1.2
million.
Since Aug. 25, 2017, nearly 24,000 Rohingya Muslims
have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces, according to a report by the
Ontario International Development Agency (OIDA).
More than 34,000 Rohingya were thrown into fires, over
114,000 more were beaten, and as many as 18,000 Rohingya women and girls were
raped by Myanmar’s army and police said the OIDA report, titled Forced
Migration of Rohingya: The Untold Experience.
Over 115,000 Rohingya homes were burned down and some
113,000 others vandalized, the report added.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/rights-groups-urge-uk-to-join-rohingya-case-at-icj/2074607
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French support for Haftar is shame: Libyan minister
Gözde Bayar
12.12.2020
The military cooperation agreement between Turkey and
Libya is open and declared, unlike the secret pact that warlord Khalifa Haftar
has with his allies, the Libyan defense minister said on Friday.
“The military cooperation with Turkey is an open and
declared agreement. It is not hidden as Haftar’s alliances with his
supporters,” Salahuddin al-Namroush said in an interview with France 24, a
Paris-based state-owned international news TV network.
“We hope that it [France] will change its attitude,
but it is a shame that France has supported Haftar for years, “he said.
Underlining that it is not possible to accept Haftar
because he is a war criminal, the defense minister said they are discovering
new mass graves in Tarhuna and the south of Tripoli.
He said if forces loyal to Haftar continue to break
the ceasefire, the internationally recognized Government of National Accord
will withdraw from the agreement and fight against him.
With the support of mercenaries, Haftar attacked the
south of Libya at a time when the Tripoli government respected the ceasefire
agreement, he added.
Libya has been torn by civil war since the ouster of
late ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
Based in the capital Tripoli and currently led by
Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, the Government of National Accord assumed
office in 2015 under an UN-led agreement. But the efforts for a long-term
political settlement have failed due to a military offensive launched by
Haftar.
Al-Sarraj's government, which is also supported by
Turkey, is recognized by the UN as Libya’s legitimate authority.
Tripoli has been battling Haftar's militias since
April 2019 in a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/french-support-for-haftar-is-shame-libyan-minister/2074325
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French FM ahead of Macron visit: Lebanon’s collapse is
like the Titanic’s sinking
13 December 2020
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said
Lebanon’s political and economic collapse was like the sinking of the Titanic,
only without the music.
“Lebanon is the Titanic without the orchestra,” Le
Drian told the daily Le Figaro in an interview published on Sunday. “The
Lebanese are in complete denial as they sink, and there isn’t even the music.”
Le Drian’s remarks set a pessimistic tone a little
over a week before President Emmanuel Macron makes his third visit to Beirut
since a massive port blast destroyed swathes of the city and killed 200 people
in August.
Macron is losing patience with Lebanon’s politicians
as rival politicians mired in turf battles stand in the way of sweeping reforms
that donors say are imperative for badly-needed financial aid to be released.
It is believed the Titanic’s orchestra kept playing
for as long as it could as the liner went down in the Atlantic Ocean in 1912,
trying to help keep passengers calm amid impending doom. All the musicians
perished.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/12/13/French-FM-ahead-of-Macron-visit-Lebanon-s-collapse-is-like-the-Titanic-s-sinking
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Four Azerbaijan soldiers killed in areas near
Nagorno-Karabakh region
13 December 2020
Four Azeri servicemen were killed when their units
were attacked in areas adjacent to the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region,
Azerbaijan’s defense ministry said on Sunday.
Authorities in Armenia said six of their servicemen
had been wounded in what they described as an Azeri military offensive, as the
sides accused each other of violating a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/12/13/Four-Azerbaijan-soldiers-killed-in-areas-near-Nagorno-Karabakh-region
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Turkish foreign minister recalls Bosnian War
13.12.2020
The Dayton Peace Agreement brought "much-needed
peace" to the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina after years of bitter
fighting, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said in a video message on
Saturday.
Participating in a virtual event organized by the
Office of the High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina to commemorate the
25th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords, he said that the agreement ended
the war and genocide in the country.
The peace agreement reached at Dayton city of US, on
Nov. 21 1995 was formally signed in Paris, on Dec. 14. These accord ended the
more than three-year-long Bosnian War.
"The achievements of Dayton have been remarkable.
That said many things have changed in the last quarter-century. Therefore, we
need to adapt to new realities. We need to have a better functioning system
that will increase the welfare of all citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina,"
said Cavusoglu.
He underlined that Turkey has a "strong
commitment" to the territorial integrity and fundamental structure of
Bosnia and Herzegovina as a single, sovereign state, comprising two entities
and the Brcko District in the northern part of the country.
"The integrity, unity, and sovereignty of Bosnia
and Herzegovina are crucial for Turkey. It is also a key element for
maintaining peace and stability in the Balkans and beyond," said the
Turkish foreign minister, adding that Turkey also supports efforts to improve
regional cooperation for prosperity in the region.
Cavusoglu also stressed the support of Turkey in
Bosnia-Herzegovina’s progress towards Euro-Atlantic integration.
Urging the participants to look into the future, while
not forgetting the past, the Turkish minister said that the suffering of
innocent people during the siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica Genocide is
still fresh in the minds.
"Justice and peace go hand in hand.
Accountability serves as a strong deterrent for future crimes and also
consolidates peace. Remembering the past and honoring those who lost their
lives will remind us that we should protect peace at all costs,” he said.
Ultra-nationalism brings sufferings
He emphasized that the language of hatred,
intolerance, cultural and ethnic divisions, or ultra-nationalism brings nothing
but suffering.
"Lessons learned from the pains of the past
should guide us towards stronger cooperation in the region. We should
appreciate our cultural differences. This is our richness," he added.
Noting that respecting the "other" is key
for peaceful coexistence, Cavusoglu said that this is true not only for the
Balkans but also for wider Europe and across the globe.
"The sufferings of 25 years ago must be a bitter
reminder that rising xenophobia, racism, and Islamophobia especially in Europe
must be prevented. This can only be achieved with strong political leadership
that acts with wisdom rather than populism," he said.
He also pointed out that Turkey, as a member of the
Peace Implementation Council Steering Committee, will continue to "fully
support" the maintenance of peace and stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
"The future can be better when we are
together," he concluded.
The role of High Representative was created under the
General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, usually
referred to as the Dayton Peace Agreement. The brutal three-and-a-half-year war
of Bosnia had resulted in around 100,000 deaths and one or worst human rights
abuses in the recent past.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/turkish-foreign-minister-recalls-bosnian-war/2075074
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Azerbaijan criticizes OSCE Minsk group on Karabakh
Ruslan Rehimov
12.12.2020
Azerbaijan's president on Saturday said the Minsk
group of Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has not
yet played any role in resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict which recently
escalated after Armenian forces launched attacks on Azerbaijani civilians and
security personnel.
Ilham Aliyev’s remarks came amid an OSCE Minsk group
meeting held in the capital Baku with the participation of the group's
co-chairs France's Stephane Visconti and Andrew Schofer from the US, along with
Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Andrzej Kasprzyk.
Aliyev said the status-quo in the region has changed
and the Azerbaijani leadership resolved the decades-long conflict through force
and diplomatic means.
Although the Minsk group of the OSCE produced ideas in
an effort to resolve the dispute, these did not bear any fruit, according to
the president.
Azerbaijan solved this problem on its own, Aliyev also
said, adding that his country managed to beat Armenia on the battlefield.
The president further noted that Baku does not have
any problem with the Armenian population living in the region, stressing that
their living standards will rise under the Azerbaijani rule.
Karabakh conflict
Relations between the former Soviet republics have been
tense since 1991 when the Armenian military occupied Nagorno-Karabakh, a
territory recognized as part of Azerbaijan, and seven adjacent regions.
When new clashes erupted on Sept. 27, the Armenian
army launched attacks on civilians and Azerbaijani forces and violated several
humanitarian cease-fire agreements.
During the 44-day conflict, Azerbaijan liberated
several cities and nearly 300 settlements and villages from the Armenian
occupation.
The two countries signed a Russian-brokered agreement
on Nov. 10 to end fighting and work toward a comprehensive resolution.
The truce is seen as a victory for Azerbaijan and a
defeat for Armenia, whose armed forces have been withdrawing in line with the
agreement.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/azerbaijan-front-line/azerbaijan-criticizes-osce-minsk-group-on-karabakh/2074973
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Italy legislature severs ties with Egyptian parliament
Baris Seckin
12.12.2020
ROME
Italy’s bicameral legislature or the Chamber of
Deputies will suspend diplomatic relations with the Egyptian Parliament, an
official said on Friday.
Speaking to Al Jazeera Arabic, Speaker of the Lower
House Roberto Fico took note of the latest information about Italian student
Giulio Regeni, who was found dead in Egypt about five years ago.
“We were astonished by what the prosecutors in Rome
wrote because there are very serious accusations made against the Egyptian
National Security Agency,” Fico said, adding that there are grisly statements
about Regeni's torture.
Regeni’s body was found on the outskirts of Cairo in
February 2016, bearing signs of torture believed to be the work of Egypt’s
security agency.
“We know he was followed for 40 days, abducted, and
kept in room 13 of the Egyptian Interior Ministry, “said the speaker.
Stressing that the Italian people are angry, he added
four members of the Egyptian National Security Agency appeared to have
participated in Regeni's kidnapping and murder.
“As the House of Representatives, we will remain
determined to close diplomatic relations with Egypt,” he announced.
Giulio Regeni, a 28-year-old doctoral student studying
in Egypt, vanished on Jan. 25, 2016 -- the fifth anniversary of a popular
uprising that forced President Hosni Mubarak to step down after 30 years in
power. Nine days later he body was found on a highway.
While Egyptian authorities deny any involvement in the
student’s death, observers have noted that the signs of torture on the young
man's body were uncannily similar to those caused by Egyptian police torture.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/italy-legislature-severs-ties-with-egyptian-parliament/2074310
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India
Saudi Deported Indians For Protesting Against Narendra
Modi's Anti-Muslim Register
December 11, 2020
Arab media has reported that Saudi Arabia deported a
number of non-resident Indians (NRI) living in the Gulf state for protesting
against the highly controversial register introduced by the far-right Hindu
nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Inspired by Shaheen Bagh Protests in India last year,
where a group of mainly Muslim women organised a sit-in to demonstrate against
the National Register of Citizens (NRC), a number of Indians living in Jeddah
are said to have shown their solidarity by holding placards against the
proposed registration bill.
The protest landed the NRIs in trouble. It's reported
that they were arrested for violating rules that prohibit any kind of assembly
and protest and repatriated back to India.
Gulf countries have zero tolerance towards any kind of
protest, demonstration, or gatherings. But the protesters, some of whom were
young, are said to have been unaware of this basic rule. Many also got into
trouble for posting support on social media.
When the Modi government introduced the NRC it sparked
outrage. Many say the move was an attempt by the Hindu nationalist government
to change the face of India. Amongst the inflammatory steps taken by Modi
following his re-election in May 2019 was the push for new legislation, the
Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB). This controversial move, which critics say
threatens to demote the status of the country's 200 million Muslim citizens,
sparked protests across the country.
In the Assam region of India almost two million people
are said to have been excluded from the state's National Register of Citizens
(NRC).
Around the same time, in October 2019, Saudi Arabia
and India extended their partnership especially on security matters after a new
Strategic Partnership Council was agreed during a visit by Crown Prince
Mohammed Bin Salman to New Delhi.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20201211-saudi-deported-indians-for-protesting-against-narendra-modis-anti-muslim-register/
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Pakistan violates ceasefire along IB, LoC
Dec 13, 2020
JAMMU: Pakistan violated the ceasefire along the
International Border (IB) in J&K’s Kathua district and along the Line of
Control (LoC) in Poonch district on Sunday, resorting to heavy firing and
shelling targeting forward posts and villages in the areas.
“The firing from across the IB in Pansar border
outpost in Kathua’s Hiranagar sector began around 10pm on Saturday. BSF troops
manning the posts retaliated effectively,” a BSF source said. The cross-border
fire exchange continued till 3.45am on Sunday, triggering panic among civilians
residing near the border, who were forced to spend the night in safety bunkers.
“Around 5.45pm, Pakistan opened unprovoked fire and
shelled mortars along the LoC in Poonch’s Degwar sector,” Jammu-based defence
spokesperson Lt Col Devender Anand said, adding that Indian troops retaliated
with equal calibre.
Sources said there was no report of injury or damage
on the Indian side in either breach of truce.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/pakistan-violates-ceasefire-along-ib-loc/articleshow/79710081.cms
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Pakistan Made another Attempt To Push Terrorists Into
Kashmir To Disturb Ongoing Polls: Jammu and Kashmir Police DGP
Dec 13, 2020, 10.17 PM IST
JAMMU: After two terrorists were killed and another
was captured in Poonch district on Sunday, Jammu and Kashmir Police chief
Dilbag Singh said Pakistan made another attempt to push LeT and JeM terrorists
into Kashmir to disturb the ongoing District Development Council (DDC) polls.
The Director General of Police (DGP) complimented the
joint team of police and army that gunned down the two infiltrating Pakistani
terrorists and captured another.
"Another attempt (was made) by Pakistan to send
in LeT-JeM terrorists to Kashmir to disturb the ongoing democratic process of
grassroots level elections," Singh told PTI.
He said that it shows Pakistan's desperation due to
huge participation of people in the ongoing elections.
The DGP said that three days ago the group of three
terrorists crossed over from Pakistan and were on their way to Shopian.
"On an input they were being chased by police. Day before yesterday,
(security) parties reached the spot but could not launch operation due to
snowfall. Today afternoon another move was made...," he said.
The terrorists were trapped in a snow-bound area in
remote Chattapani-Dugran village and were asked to surrender but they refused
and instead fired indiscriminately on the security forces in an attempt to
break the cordon.
The security forces retaliated and killed two of them.
Another terrorist was captured alive during the gunfight.
Both the Pakistani terrorists have been killed in the
encounter, he said.
On November 19, four heavily armed terrorists were
killed in an encounter with security forces at Nagrota when they were
travelling to Kashmir in a truck with the aim of disrupting the DDC polls,
police had said.
The terrorists had the backing of Pakistan and had
infiltrated into Jammu and Kashmir for causing disturbances in the DDC
elections that began on November 28.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/pakistan-made-another-attempt-to-push-terrorists-into-kashmir-to-disturb-ongoing-polls-dgp/articleshow/79709509.cms
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Pakistan
Thousands Gather in Pakistan, Seeking End to Imran
Khan’s Government
By Ayesha Tanzeem
December 14, 2020
LAHORE, PAKISTAN - The president of an alliance of
opposition parties in Pakistan warned of a confrontation between the public and
the military if the military decided to stop them from reaching the capital,
Islamabad, to bring down the current government.
“Get out of the way of the people,” he said, adding
that he foresaw anarchy if the status quo continued.
Maulana Fazlur Rehman was in Lahore on Sunday,
addressing a rally of the Pakistan Democratic Movement, an alliance of 11
opposition parties seeking to bring down the government of Prime Minister Imran
Khan. The PDM announced it would march on the capital if Khan did not resign by
end of January.
Rehman, the leader of an Islamist political party
called Jamiat e Ulema e Islam, has been a critic of the current government
since it was elected in 2018. His efforts to build an opposition alliance faced
roadblocks until the formation of the PDM this past September.
Tens of thousands gathered for the rally from across
the country in Pakistan’s second-largest city, which is considered a
trendsetter in Pakistani politics.
The idea of creating Pakistan out of British India was
first presented in Lahore in 1940. In 1967, one of the country’s largest
political parties, the Pakistan People’s Party, was formed in the same city.
The current ruling party, Pakistan Tehreek e Insaaf, emerged as a mainstream
national party after a successful rally in Lahore in 2011.
The opposition accuses leadership at the top of
Pakistan’s powerful military and one of the intelligence agencies, Inter
Services Intelligence, of having rigged the last elections to install Khan.
They say the military and intelligence leadership, therefore, share
responsibility for the country’s economic woes including rising inflation, lack
of economic opportunities, and the poor growth rate of the economy.
“Is Imran Khan the only one responsible? Or those who
stole your vote and brought him to power?” said Nawaz Sharif, a former prime
minister who was ousted. His party, the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz, the
largest opposition party, is also part of the alliance.
The military denies its involvement in politics. Khan
alleges the opposition is a group of looters and plunderers who stole the
country’s wealth when they were in power and are now complaining because they
are being held accountable.
The opposition claimed the rally was successful in
building up momentum for the upcoming march. Khan claimed otherwise.
“Pathetic. PDM spent so much money, time, effort &
displayed utter callousness by endangering ppl's lives during COVID19 spike -
showing the scant regard they have for citizens' safety & well-being,” he
tweeted after Sunday’s rally.
Meanwhile local officials from Khan’s party said the
opposition failed to gather a large crowd. They also accused the PDM leadership
of putting people’s lives at risk during a pandemic.
“If corona cases rise in Lahore after today, the
opposition leadership will be fully responsible,” said Raja Basharat, the law
minister of Punjab province.
Another member of the alliance, Bilawal Bhutto
Zardari, the scion of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who took over
the reins of her Pakistan People’s Party after her death, warned Khan that the
time to have a dialogue with the opposition was over.
“I promise you this puppet, selected government is
going home soon,” he told the people in the rally.
Last week, Khan said that after a similar opposition
rally in Multan, the hospital beds for COVID-19 patients were now 64% full.
COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.
“I appeal to everyone, I appeal to these political
parties, your rallies will not damage the government, but you are putting
people’s lives at risk,” he said, asking them to postpone their rallies for a
couple of months.
The opposition said the government was only using the
coronavirus as an excuse to break its momentum. Meanwhile, opposition leaders
said all the other activity in the country, such as mass transit, shopping
plazas, weddings, and even the government’s own gatherings of hundreds,
continued.
https://www.voanews.com/south-central-asia/thousands-gather-pakistan-seeking-end-imran-khans-government
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My narrative is the same as Quaid-i-Azam's, says Nawaz
at PDM's Lahore power show
Javed Hussain | Dawn.com | Rana Bilal
14 Dec 2020
Leaders of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) on
Sunday blasted the government and establishment at Lahore's Minar-i-Pakistan at
the sixth power show which the alliance has termed as a "historic and
decisive" one.
PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif also addressed the crowd
via video link and asked who was answerable for the government's failings.
"He (PM Imran) says I won't give an NRO. Who is
asking you for an NRO? You and Aleema Khan got an NRO from Saqib Nisar
yourself," said Nawaz.
"They say, don't take names? Tell me, what should
we do? Is Imran Khan alone responsible for the predicament the country is
in?"
Nawaz said that his "crime is that I speak the
truth" and added that he was fighting for the people. He said that his
"narrative" was the same as Quaid-i-Azam's. Nawaz once again lashed
out at the armed forces, accusing them of being involved in political matters.
"Stop political engineering factories in
agencies," said the former prime minister.
PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz thanked Lahore's
residents for attending the public meeting in overwhelming numbers. Without
naming the prime minister, Maryam said that someone had "challenged PDM in
Pharoah's tone" to gather enough people to fill up Minar-i-Pakistan's
grounds, adding that today, participants of the public meeting had filled up
adjoining streets as well.
Referring to a gathering held by the PTI at
Minar-i-Pakistan in 2011, Maryam alleged that the public meeting had been
arranged by former ISI chief Shuja Pasha.
Maryam also spoke about the Panama Papers case and
alleged that former chief justice Asif Saeed Khosa had told the incumbent prime
minister to file an application "after which you (Imran) ousted Nawaz
Sharif on the basis of an iqama through a fixed match".
The PML-N vice president also questioned PM Imran's
offer for dialogue through the Parliament, asking who was behind the operations
of the House. The incumbent premier will have to go, Maryam said, because he
had ruined the country's economy and had "lied to the people every
day".
She said Lahore welcomed Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and
Balochistan as a "real brother".
"No one is big or small, we are all equal,"
Maryam declared.
She said that for the past three years, the prime
minister — whom she referred to as 'Tabedar (obedient) Khan' — had been saying
that he will not grant an NRO. Maryam insisted that today, the prime minister
was seeking an NRO from Nawaz Sharif and the people.
She urged the people to wear masks because "I
value and care for your life" but said that it was important to attend
public meetings because Covid-18 was "more lethal than Covid-19". The
former prime minister's daughter expressed grief that seven patients in
Peshawar's Khyber Teaching Hospital had died due to shortage in oxygen supply
and question the PTI government's performance in the health sector.
PPP chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, in his address,
recalled that his grandfather Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had founded the party in
Punjab. PPP workers in Lahore, Bilawal said, went through torture but continued
to support democracy.
He said that the country was suffering because of the
"fake, incompetent and illegitimate government".
"Punjab's pag (turban) is on the head of the
puppet of a puppet. Is this acceptable to Punjab?" he asked, adding that
he neither accepted the prime minister nor his chief minister. He insisted that
the PDM's "war is not for power but for the rights" of the people.
The PPP chief said that non-democratic forces termed
as the establishment, which he refers to as the selectors, "have been conspiring
against you (public) and have been forming governments of their choice".
He said that the incumbent government was brought to power "through the
umpire's signal".
"Selectors, listen, you will have to listen to
the public's voice, you will have to accept their decision [...] the time for
dialogue is gone, now there will be a long march," said a charged Bilawal.
"Stop making phone calls, stop trying to
establish contacts. No differences can be created between us, we will reach
Islamabad and chase your puppet out. Once he is gone, then there can be
dialogue," said Bilawal.
The JUI-F chief also addressed the crowd and said:
"The wounds inflicted by the rigging done by the establishment for this
illegal government, the dirty role they played [to sieze] this illegal power
are getting deeper."
Rehman further said that he wanted to "alert and
caution the defence forces and their leadership [...] to move out of the
people's way and let them reach Islamabad".
"In the coming days, I see anarchy in the
country. We should handle matters before heading towards anarchy," he
said.
'Who is responsible?'
Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan's (JUP) Awais Noorani, who was
the first to address the crowd, told Prime Minister Imran Khan to submit his
resignation and called upon PTI supporters to "rebel" against the
ruling party.
Awami National Party Ameer Haider Khan Hoti also
condemned the ruling PTI and said that about 80 years ago, Bacha Khan had
started a non-violent struggle for his nation's rights but he was termed as a
traitor.
Hoti declared that terrorism was "imposed upon
the Pakhtun people" saying, "Pakhtun people were the ones who were
killed and were defamed as well". He added that there were
"conspiracies" to lead Afghan peace talks towards failure and efforts
to "create misunderstandings between Afghanistan and Pakistan".
"I want to say that this is not our fight alone,
this is of all of Pakistan's," he said. Hoti urged PDM leaders to stand by
the Pakhtun people and vowed that he would continue to stand by the alliance
for the "supremacy of the Parliament and Constitution and the respect for
vote".
Balochistan National Party-Mengal’s Sardar Akhtar
Mengal started off his address by saying that the PDM public meetings were
"funeral prayers of the dictators and the powers who, for 70 years, have
treated the country's Constitution as their slave".
"I will only present a few drops of the blood
flowing from our bodies and then you can decide if we are responsible for the
distrubance in Balochistan today," he said. Mengal said that his party had
been struggling against the khalayi makhlooq, against whom the people have
gathered today.
"Who is responsible [for the cruelty and
injustice over the past 70 years]? It is not them, but the politicians and
[people of the] big province who have gathered in this venue today,"
Mengal said. "Had you controlled this dragon from day one, it would not
have become this uncontrollable monster. This genie that is out of the bottle,
it is your responsibility to control it."
Mengal said that 10,000 Baloch people were still
missing, adding that all the people of Balochistan want was to be treated and
respected as humans. He also spoke about provincial autonomy, saying that if
"provinces were autonomous [in Pakistan] Bangladesh would not have been
created". He said that in Gwadar people were being "divided like East
Germany and West Germany" in the name of development.
Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party chairman Mehmood Khan
Achakzai called for a "Turkey-like revolution" in Pakistan and urged
Maryam, Bilawal and Rehman to spearhead the movement. He said that he was
striving for a Pakistan where no ethnicity would be superior to the other.
Jamiat-i-Ahle Hadees chief emir Professor Sajid Mir
also spoke at the gathering and said he wanted to "commend the
participants for holding a grand and memorable public meeting in the shadow of
Minar-i-Pakistan despite the difficulties" created by the government.
He said that the "new Pakistan's government was
in quarantine" and added that PDM shared the same narrative. Mir said that
the "right to self govern should be returned to the public".
This was the first time in the recent history of the
country that the PML-N held a public meeting at Minar-i-Pakistan, the first
rally at this venue for the party's Vice President Maryam.
Similarly, it was PPP Chairperson Bilawal's first
appearance at a political gathering at Minar-i-Pakistan. His late mother,
former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, held a historic public meeting at
Minar-i-Pakistan in 1986.
Lunch by PML-N
Arrangements were completed early on Sunday and
leaders of the parties arrived in the city for the PDM's final power show of
the first phase of its anti-government movement.
Upon arrival, Maryam hosted a lunch at party leader
Ayaz Sadiq's residence in the city.
The lunch was attended by Bilawal and other opposition
bigwigs, including Rehman, Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) President
Sardar Akhtar Mengal and Awami National Party (ANP) central general secretary
Mian Iftikhar Hussain.
From there, the leaders left for Minar-i-Pakistan, the
venue of the rally.
'Final push'
Earlier in the day, while speaking to reporters while
leaving her Jati Umra residence, Maryam said that the public would now
"bring down the roof" over the PTI government.
"I want to give a message to the entire Lahore
that I am fully aware of your difficulties. People have not come out on the
PDM's call; instead, it is the PDM that has come out on the people's call. The
time has come to give the final push to [the PTI government]," she said,
urging people from all sectors to come and attend the rally.
She said this government is "going and the era of
Nawaz Sharif's services is coming".
In a tweet, she also advised the attendees to
"wear a mask for your own safety and that of your dear ones, at all times,
before, during and after" the rally.
Earlier, Bilawal's procession passed through
Naseerabad where it was surrounded by party workers.
Rehman met leaders of his party, including Rashid
Mehmood Soomro, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Hyderi and former member of the National
Assembly (MNA) Qamaruddin Soomro, at a hotel in Lahore.
The JUI-F leaders briefed Rehman about arrangements
for the rally. "Today's rally at Minar-i-Pakistan will break all previous
records," Rehman said.
Senior PML-N leader Khawaja Saad Rafique, while
speaking to attendees at the rally, said that today was a "very
important" day.
"We want to end interference in democracies. We
want the supremacy of the Constitution and the law. Constant interference puts
Pakistan's [progress] back by 20 years [...] When more than 150 resignations
are received, how will they (the government) hold by-elections?" he
questioned.
Meanwhile, PML-N deputy secretary general Ataullah
Tarar said that volunteers have been assigned their duties and they have taken
up their positions. "A historic rally is about to happen. The PDM will
prove that it is an alliance of the parties representing the people," he
said.
PML-N information secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb said
that the day has come that the "selected and vote-stealing
government" feared.
She said that people from not only Lahore but all over
Pakistan were coming to the rally at Minar-i-Pakistan.
Next phase
The PDM is expected to announce the "decisive
phase" of its struggle against the PTI-led government in today's public
meeting.
A senior PML-N leader told Dawn that the next phase of
its struggle would begin in January in which the PDM had planned 16 more
rallies across the country before the final showdown — a long march on
Islamabad and resignations from the national and provincial assemblies.
"We expect that some ‘behind the scenes’
development may take place in January before the PDM goes for a long
march," he said.
The PDM has planned a long march in February if the
PTI government does not buckle to the pressure exerted by the opposition
alliance.
However, no consensus seems to be in sight over
resignations from the national and provincial assemblies at the moment because
PPP is still reluctant to say goodbye to the Sindh government.
This matter has been deferred for the time being and
the PDM is concentrating on protest rallies.
The government, on the other hand, appears to have
changed at the last minute its strategy to handle the rally. The government
said it would not stop the people coming from other cities from joining the
rally, giving an opportunity to the opposition parties to match Imran Khan’s Oct
2011 public meeting at the same venue.
https://www.dawn.com/news/1595548/my-narrative-is-the-same-as-quaid-i-azams-says-nawaz-at-pdms-lahore-power-show
--------
Pak Opposition alliance holds its final rally,
announces long march to force PM Imran Khan to resign
December 14, 2020
Pakistan’s Opposition alliance on Sunday held its
final anti-government rally in Lahore despite a ban on the gathering of more
than 300 people owing to an increase in COVID-19 cases across the country, with
top coalition leaders announcing a long march to Islamabad to force Prime
Minister Imran Khan to resign.
Addressing the rally held at Lahore’s Minar-e-Pakistan
via video link, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz supremo Nawaz Sharif once again
lashed out at the armed forces, accusing them of being involved in political
matters.
“Stop political engineering factories in agencies,”
said the 70-year-old three-time former prime minister.
He has repeatedly blamed Army chief Gen Qamar Javed
Bajwa and spy agency ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed for Pakistan’s current
situation.
“They say, don’t take names? Tell me, what should we
do? Is Imran Khan alone responsible for the predicament the country is in?”
Sharif asked.
Sharif, who is entangled in a number of corruption
cases, has been in London since November last year after the Lahore High Court
granted him permission to go abroad for four weeks for treating the heart
disease and an immune system disorder.
Pakistan’s powerful Army has denied meddling in
politics. Prime Minister Khan also denies that the Army helped him win the
election in 2018.
“My crime is that I speak the truth,” Sharif said,
adding that he was fighting for the people.
He said that his “narrative” was the same as
Quaid-i-Azam’s, referring to Pakistan’s founder Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
His daughter and PML-N Vice President Maryam Nawaz
launched a frontal attack on ISI and judiciary for ousting her father and
imposing ‘inept and incompetent’ prime minister on the country.
“Former chief justice Asif Saeed Khosa had asked Imran
Khan (in 2016) to bring his petition related to Panama Papers and then ousted
Nawaz Sharif (in 2017) based on an iqama (work permit) through a fixed match,”
46-year-old Maryam said, referring to Sharif’s disqualification as Prime
Minister in 2017 by the Supreme Court in the Panama Papers case.
Three corruption cases – Avenfield properties,
Flagship investment and Al-Azizia steel mills – were registered against the
Sharif family by the anti-corruption body in 2017 following a judgment by the
Supreme Court that disqualified him.
In her speech, Maryam named two former ISI chiefs —
Gen Shuja Pasha and Gen Zaheerul Islam — for launching Khan in 2011 and
organising his 2014 Islamabad sit-in to oust her father.
“Former ISI chief Gen Pasha launched Imran Khan in
October 2011 at a rally in Minar-i-Pakistan and former ISI chief Zaheerul Islam
sponsored Imran’s Islamabad sit-in against the elected government of Nawaz
Sharif in 2014,” she said.
Maryam also claimed that a retired ISI Colonel is
controlling Pakistan’s lower and upper houses.
“In Islamabad, everyone knows that a retired ISI
Colonel is running the Parliament (National Assembly) and Senate,” she alleged.
Maryam also questioned why no action against Lt Gen
Asim Saleem Bajwa, the chairman China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), has
been taken as yet for making billions and setting up a famous pizza chain.
She said the institutions should refrain from
interfering in politics.
“Imran Khan is only interested in saving his job by
serving his masters. This obedient Khan will have to go now,” she said.
Terming Imran Khan a ‘Pharoah’, she said this selected
premier has become a liability and even those who brought him to power are
worried.
“The selectors now have realised how much incompetent
and inept this man is. The time has come to get rid of him,” she said.
Maryam urged supporters to answer the call for a march
to Islamabad, while Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari
formally announced that the movement is now headed to Islamabad.
Jamiat Ulema Islam leader and PDM chief Maulana Fazlur
Rehman said the march will take place late January or early February.
Earlier, a number of workers of the coalition parties
reached Minar-i-Pakistan. They broke the locks of its main gate, placed chairs
and installed lights for the much-hyped power show of the Opposition.
PDM’s Minar-i-Pakistan public meeting was the last one
in its first phase of rallies that had begun over two months ago.
The alliance has announced that all Opposition parties
will resign from the national and provincial assemblies to pressure the
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government to hold fresh elections.
Earlier, Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar had asked
the PDM to delay its rally in light of ‘terror threat alerts’ and the
coronavirus situation.
Special Assistant to the Chief Minister on Information
Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan said in a tweet the government had intelligence reports
that there was a threat to the PDM rally.
“If any untoward incident takes place at the PDM
rally, the Opposition parties will be responsible,” she warned.
Police in Lahore had booked more than 3,000 workers of
the PML-N for violating COVID-19 guidelines during this week’s meetings held
here by Maryam, he said.
The PDM has been formed against the Pakistan Army’s
interference in politics and installing “puppet” Prime Minister Khan through a
manipulated election.
https://indianexpress.com/article/pakistan/pak-opposition-alliance-holds-final-rally-long-march-to-force-pm-imran-khan-to-resign-7103961/
--------
Impossible but Pakistan army wants to wipe out
Mohajirs, says MQM founder
December 14, 2020
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) founder and leader
Altaf Hussain on Sunday said that the Pakistani Army wants to wipe out the
Mohajirs but asserted it will be impossible to wipe out millions of Mohajirs.
"The army wants to eliminate the Mohajirs, it can
kill a few people but cannot wipe out the millions of Mohajirs... We will now
work together with the Sindhi brothers for the rights and freedom of
Sindh," he expressed these views while addressing the party workers and
the people on Sunday and called for unity and solidarity of the permanent
residents and the joint struggle for the independence of Sindh.
"We chose the word "Mohajir" for our
identity. Now this is our identity which is a reality and cannot be
denied," he added and further said that Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in
collaboration with the Army implemented quota system in Sindh on the basis of
urban and rural.
"Foundation for segregation and division in Sindh
was laid through this quota system and higher education and government jobs
were denied to Mohajirs. Whether it is the Police or other government
departments, the number of Mohajirs (employed) in it is negligible," he
continued.
The MQM founder stated that "our elders"
broke India in the name of Islam and made Pakistan but raised the question as
to who got the benefit of making Pakistan.
"Jawaharlal Nehru (first Prime Minister of India)
was ready to give 27 per cent share in power to the Muslims of India but those
who migrated to Pakistan are not given even 2 per cent share," the founder
pointed out.
While advocating for the independence of Sindh from
the draconian rule of the Pakistani Army, the MQM founder said that the life
and death of the Mohajir is associated with Sindh.
"I would advise the Mohajirs that we live in
Sindh, our life and death is associated with Sindh, we became Sindhis on the
basis of affiliation with it and we have to fight for the independence of Sindh
together with our Sindhi brothers, we need the independence of Sindh and not
the province," he said.
Hussain said that in 'independent Sindh' there will be
equal rights for Mohajirs and Sindhis and Sindhi brothers will openly recognize
the rights of Mohajirs and their rights and "if Mohajirs are not given
equal rights then Sindh will be abused."
"If the Sindhis and Mohajirs do not recognize
each other wholeheartedly, it will be the detriment of the motherland of
Sindh," the founder said further.
https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/impossible-but-pakistan-army-wants-to-wipe-out-mohajirs-says-mqm-founder-120121400225_1.html
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South Asia
Bangladesh govt approves primary list of 1,222
martyred intellectuals
Dec 14, 2020
After 49 years of the Liberation War, the Bangladesh
government has approved a primary list of 1,222 martyred intellectuals who made
sacrifices for the nation in 1971, a Minister announced.
On Sunday, Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM
Mozammel Huque said the list will be formally released this month.
Huque's announcement came a day ahead of country
observing the Martyred Intellectuals' Day on Monday.
In separate messages on Sunday, President M. Abdul
Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, paying homage to the martyred
intellectuals.
Huque said the list was approved at the first meeting
of the committee formed to compile it.
"The list is likely to be approved in the next
meeting of the committee. An outline has already been prepared stating who will
be considered as martyred intellectuals.
"In 1972, the lists of 1,070 martyred intellectuals
were published. Later, the postal department released commemorative postage
stamps of 152 martyrs. So, the number of martyred intellectuals we have
received is 1,222. We have given approval of the lists," the Minister
said.
A memorial erected in the memory of the martyred
intellectuals in Dhaka's Mirpur area has been readied as national leaders and
people from all walks of life will pay tributes.
The Pakistani Army and their Bengali-speaking
collaborators belonging to the Jamaat-e-Islam killed a number of intellectuals
from March 25, 1971, throughout the nine-month-long Liberation War.
They visibly engaged the infamous Gestapo like Al-Badr
and Al-Shams forces on December 14, 1971 to carry out a systematic campaign to
kill the most eminent academics and professionals like doctors, engineers and
journalists to make the nation to a state of brainlessness just before the
independence of Bangladesh.
The then Bangladesh government and victorious freedom
fighters, however, came to know about their last brutal massacre only when the
Pakistani troops surrendered on December 16, 1971, to the Indian Army.
The top accomplices of Pakistan Army belonging to
Jamaat-e-Islami and its student wing Islami Chhatra Sangstha went into hiding
to resurface years later.
Those who were exposed to the killers' wrath on
December 14, 1971, included eye specialist Alim Chowdhury and Fazle Rabbi;
journalists Shahidullah Kaisar, Sirajudddin Hossain, Selina Parveen; and
littérateur Monier Choudhury.
Most of the victims were picked up from their
residences in Dhaka, blindfolded and killed between December 10-14, 1971.
After assuming the state power in 2009, the ruling
Awami League has brought the perpetrators of intellectuals killing and the war
criminals of 1971 under justice.
Jamat chief (Amir) Matiur Rahman Nizami and
Secretary-General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid and Assistant Secretary generals
Abdul Qader Mollah and Mohammad Qamaruzzaman have already been executed on war
crimes charges.
BNP founder Ziaur Rahman and his wife Khaleda Zia,
incumbent chief of the BNP, had appointed the killers as ministers, who had
later been convicted guilty of their crimes against humanity like genocide,
rape and ethnic cleansing on 1971 by the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT).
"We have held the trial of war criminals and
executed the court verdicts. I think it's necessary to equally try those who
rewarded the war criminals, gave the national flag to their hands and made them
ministers in independent Bangladesh," Hasina has said.
"The war criminals of 1971 carried out the
genocide. But Zia and Khaleda, who empowered the killers as minister, lawmaker,
ambassadors to enjoy state facilities as a politician are equally guilty."
The Prime Minister said the trial of those who had directly been involved in
genocide will continue.
"There is no mercy for them. They must be tried.
And hatred will also be vented on the patrons." She said no genocide with
so severity was committed in any other country across the world where so many
people had been killed in a short time.
"There is no newspaper in the world that did not
carry the news of this genocide." About Parliament's adoption of a
resolution in 2017 to observe March 25 as Genocide Day, Hasina said they took the decision so that
the nation and next generations do not forget the misdeeds of the Pakistani
occupation forces and their local collaborators, including Razakars, Al-Badr
and Al-Shams, who committed the genocide in 1971.
Elaborate programmes, including paying homage to
Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman; hoisting the national
and black flags at half-mast and placing wreaths at the Martyred Intellectuals
Memorial at Mirpur and Rayerbazar Killing Ground at Mohammadpur in the city,
will take place on Monday.
The programmes marking the Martyred Intellectuals Day,
however, will be observed in accordance with the health and hygiene rules
imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic situation. —IANS
https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/world/bangladesh-govt-approves-primary-list-of-1-222-martyred-intellectuals-184161
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83 Taliban Killed in MoD Operations
By Mohammad Haroon Alim
14 Dec 2020
MoD said in a statement on Monday, that Taliban
offensives were rebuffed in Zherai, Arghandab, Panjwai and Shahwali Kot
districts of Kandahar province.
According to the MoD, 65 Taliban militants were
killed, when they attacked ANDSF outposts on Sunday, during the skirmish a
large amount of their weapons and ammunitions were destroyed as result of
security forces’ reciprocal attacks.
In a similar battle, Afghan National Army repelled
Taliban attacks in Andar District of Ghazni province, as a result 18 Taliban
fighters were killed and 12 others were wounded.
This clash had left, many of their vehicles destroyed,
and additionally, a large number of militant’s weapons were destroyed.
Meanwhile, Khalil Qarizada, a member of the Kunduz
provincial council, said 10 security personnel were killed in the province last
night.
He indicated, in a Taliban attack on security forces
in the Imam Sahib district of the province last night 10 Afghan security
members including the commander were killed and six others are wounded.
https://www.khaama.com/83-taliban-killed-in-mod-operations-897999/
--------
Scores Busted over Multiple Charges across Afghanistan
By Mohammad Arif Sheva
14 Dec 2020
AFGHANISTAN – Counter Narcotic Police of Afghanistan
(CNPA) have arrested at least 11 suspects over drug trafficking charges across
several provinces of the country, including capital city Kabul, said the
Ministry of Interior Affairs in a statement Monday.
According to the statement, the suspects are
apprehended in Kabul, Helmand, Parwan, Badakhshan and Samangan provinces.
“CNPA arrested 11 suspects over drug trafficking
charges, after CNPA carried multiple operations in Kabul, Helmand, Parwan,
Badakhshan & Samangan provinces,” said the MoIA in a tweet.
“CNPA seized 200 tablet-K pills, one AK-47 assault
rifle & some amount of illicit drugs,” the tweet added.
Meanwhile, in a separate operation in Kabul city, the
Afghan National Army (ANA) has arrested at least 15 people suspected of
criminal activities across the city.
“ANP operations team has arrested 15 criminal suspects
in Kabul City,” said the MoIA in a tweet. “ANP seized three pistols & one
vehicle as well.”
This came at a time the country has tighten its
security measure over growing number of armed robberies and kidnapping
throughout Afghanistan.
https://www.khaama.com/scores-busted-over-multiple-charges-across-afghanistan-34534/
--------
Miller Says Has ‘Orders to Reduce U.S. Military
Presence’ in Afghanistan
By Mohammad Arif Sheva
14 Dec 2020
KABUL, Afghanistan – The United States and NATO’s
Resolute Support forces commander in Afghanistan Gen. Scott Miller on Sunday
said he “has orders to reduce the US military presence to 2,500”, according to
sources, part of which is “in line with US-Taliban agreement.”
While Trump administration has repeatedly said the
number of US forces in Afghanistan will be reduced from roughly 4,000 to 2,500
by mid-January, critique suggested early and “uncoordinated” decision could
jeopardize the future of Afghanistan, including its international allies.
“We still have a force that’s capable of providing the
necessary support to the Afghan security forces. In some cases, it’s a direct
combat support,” Miller said, assuring Afghan forces stability after the
withdrawal.
“We still have our train, advice and assist mission
that takes place and we certainly have the ability to protect our force as well
as meet our counterterrorism commitments.”
Addressing the growing tension throughout Afghanistan
that targets Afghan scholars, journalists and civilians, Miller said, “I have
talked with the Taliban about this. The violence is too high. The Taliban
violence needs to come down. We have had many discussions about this.”
“What we refer to is a historic opportunity, ongoing
peace process, where representatives of the republic of Afghanistan are sitting
down with the Taliban and we need to make sure that from the military and
security standpoint, and to provide the confidence to the people of
Afghanistan, that we give this the best opportunity to be successful,” he
added.
Taliban Eye Islamic System in Afghanistan:
Intra-Afghan Negotiations
Intra-Afghan Negotiations Resume amid Violence
Escalation across Afghanistan
Doha Yields Agreement on Ground Rules: Intra-Afghan
Negotiations
This came at a time the Afghan and Taliban negotiating
teams recently announced a breakthrough on procedural rules of the intra-Afghan
negotiations in Qatari capital Doha, saying both teams are commitment for peace
and stability in Afghanistan.
https://www.khaama.com/miller-says-has-orders-to-reduce-u-s-military-presence-in-afghanistan-35345/
--------
Africa
Prominent Nigerian Cleric: Sheikh Zakzaky Still
Imprisoned at Riyadh’s Order
2020-December-13
“A Federal High Court sitting in Abuja declared the
detention of our leader as alien to any known Nigerian law. Hence, it ordered
for his release, which the Federal Government contemptuously refused to obey.
Therefore it is clear to all and sundry that Sheikh Zakzaky is in detention
courtesy of the dictatorial tendencies exhibited by the ruling elites in the
Buhari regime as instructed by their Saudi Wahabi masters," a senior
cleric of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, Sheik Abdulhamid Bello, said on
Saturday.
Bello said that after five years, the movement will
not forgive the Nigerian government over the Zaria massacre where many of its
members were killed by Nigerian Army in December 2015.
The cleric said the catastrophic genocide against the
innocent souls remained fresh in their memories and they would never forgive
the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government.
"We come out in large numbers today to
commemorate five years of this tragic persecution that has not been meted to
any community in Nigeria apart from us by the Buhari regime,” he added.
"How can we even forget this catastrophic
genocide against innocent souls? Indeed till the end of time, Zaria massacre
will continue to be remembered by generations to come, just like so many
unfortunate massacres before it is being remembered; where the perpetrators are
being cursed and the wrath of Allah invoked against them,” Bello said.
"During those two days, they wiped out 39
families from existence, mercilessly butchered 193 children, murdered 297
women, 548 men and 23 pregnant women, set ablaze hundreds of vehicles in an
utter show of barbarism and senselessness, mercilessly and inhumanely exhumed
corpses of martyrs that were buried at Darurrahma burial ground," the
cleric said.
He also accused the military of burying all the
corpses of Shiite citizens in mass graves at Mando and other places in Kaduna
State without the consent of their families and proper rites as recommended by
their religion.
He added that most of them were buried alive with some
of them begging for water to survive.
"Five years on after this massacre, the Federal
Government has failed in justifying its inglorious action against the Islamic
Movement in Nigeria,” the cleric said.
Nigeria’s military carried out the 2015 attack as part
of a deadly state-ordered escalation targeting the movement that Abuja has
branded as illegal.
During the attack, the 67-year-old was beaten and lost
his left eye and his wife sustained serious wounds.
During the crackdown, the military also attacked the
movement’s members as they were holding religious processions, with the
government alleging that the Muslims had blocked a convoy of the country’s
defense minister. The movement has categorically dismissed the allegations, and
said the convoy had intentionally crossed paths with the he Islamic Movement of
Nigeria (IMN) members to whip up an excuse to attack them.
Among Zakzaky’s surviving children and supporters,
concerns are mounting over his health. The 66-year-old cleric has lost vision
in one eye and was in danger of “losing the second one,” his lawyer, Femi
Falana, told reporters. Zakzaky and his wife still have “pellets of bullets in
their bodies,” said Falana, which were sustained during their 2015 arrest.
https://www.farsnews.ir/en/news/13990923000674/Prminen-Nigerian-Cleric-Sheikh-Zakzaky-Sill-Imprisned-a-Riyadh%E2%80%99s
--------
Sudan’s PM visits Ethiopia, as Tigray refugees top
50,000
13 December 2020
Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok on Sunday
arrived in Ethiopia, his office said, amid a growing refugee crisis that has
seen more than 50,000 Ethiopians flee conflict in the Tigray region into
neighboring Sudan.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed greeted his
Sudanese counterpart at Addis Ababa’s airport, where Hamdok arrived with the
acting Sudanese Foreign Minister Omar Qamar al-Din and top intelligence and
military officials.
“I look forward to having productive discussions on
political, humanitarian and security matters of common concern,” Hamdok
tweeted.
The visit came two weeks after the Ethiopian leader
declared victory in the fight against the regional government in Tigray.
However, clashes between Ethiopian federal and regional forces have continued.
The fighting, which started early in November, has
threatened to destabilize Ethiopia, which is the linchpin of the strategic Horn
of Africa, and its neighbors.
The conflict has alarmed the international
humanitarian community since the eruption in violence has largely cut off from
the world the Tigray region of 6 million people.
The UN refugee agency said more than 50,000 Ethiopians
have fled into remote areas of Sudan, first straining the generosity of local
communities and then challenging the capacity of humanitarian groups that have
hurried to set up a system to feed, shelter and care for the refugees.
The influx of refugees adds to Sudan’s economic and
security burdens. The transitional government has already been struggling under
the weight of decades of US sanctions and mismanagement under former ruler Omar
al-Bashir, who was ousted from power last year.
Eastern Sudan, which borders Ethiopia’s Tigray region,
was the scene of bouts of tribal violence in recent months that claimed dozens
of lives.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/12/13/Sudan-s-PM-visits-Ethiopia-as-Tigray-refugees-top-50-000
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Nigerian authorities step up efforts to rescue
kidnapped students
14 December 2020
Nigerian authorities have stepped up efforts to rescue
students abducted by armed men who raided a school in Katsina, the home state
of President Muhammadu Buhari.
Gunmen on motorcycles staged an attack on the
Government Science School at Kankara in Nigeria's north-western Katsina state
late on Friday.
The bandits engaged security forces in a fierce gun
battle, forcing hundreds of students to flee and hide in surrounding bushes and
forest.
Aminu Bello Masari, the governor of Katsina State,
said government forces had intensified their efforts to find and free any
kidnapped students.
Masari noted the number of hostages was still unclear.
"The school has a population of 839 and so far,
we are yet to account for 333 students," Masari told a federal government
delegation in his office on Sunday.
He said many of the boys had managed to escape from
the bandits' captivity and flee.
"We are still counting because more are still
coming out of the forest," Masari said.
"Up till this moment, no one can give a precise
figure of the children abducted," he said, adding that students who
escaped confirmed some of their peers had been taken.
"Soldiers are currently in the bushes fighting
the bandits. We will do all we can to ensure all the abducted children are
reclaimed," he said.
National police spokesman Frank Mbas said
"additional operational and investigative assets to support the ongoing
search and rescue operations" had been deployed to the region.
Osama Aminu Maale, one of the abducted students who
had managed to escape, said 520 students were initially kidnapped. "There
were a total of 520 of us that were taken by the gunmen from the school."
"After they took us away we stopped inside the
bus where they made the older students take a headcount. We counted 520,"
the 18-year-old student told AFP in a phone interview.
However, in a bulletin on Sunday, BBC quoted Buhari's
spokesman Mallam Garba Shehu as saying that only ten children remained in the
hands of the gunmen.
Buhari's spokesman cited eyewitnesses who reported
that they had escaped from their abductors.
In the meantime, since the attack took place, all
secondary schools in the state have been shut.
However, parents of students have converged on the
secondary school, begging the authorities to secure the release of the boys who
had not been able to escape.
UNICEF in a statement on Sunday said it "condemns
in the strongest possible terms this brutal attack and calls for the immediate
and unconditional release of all children and their return to their
families."
The body said it was "deeply concerned about
these acts of violence" against the teenagers.
"Attacks on schools are a violation of children's
rights. This is a grim reminder that abductions of children and widespread
grave violations of children's rights continue to take place in northern
Nigeria," it said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned
the kidnappers' attack and called for the students' release.
Guterres "reaffirms the solidarity and support of
the United Nations to the Government and people of Nigeria in their fight
against terrorism, violent extremism and organized crime," his office said
in a statement on Sunday.
Buhari has urged security forces to arrest the gunmen.
"Our prayers are with the families of the
students, the school authorities and the injured," he said.
He said on Saturday that military forces had located
the position and exchanged fire with the kidnappers.
Katsina is among several areas in northwest Nigeria
that have been repeatedly attacked by "bandits" who kidnap for ransom
and rustle cattle.
The north and northeastern states of Nigeria have been
wracked by years of violence involving clashes between rival communities over
land, attacks by heavily-armed criminal gangs, and reprisal killings by
vigilante groups.
In particular, Boko Haram and the West Africa Province
(ISWAP) branch of the Daesh terrorist group have increasingly targeted loggers,
herders and fishermen in their violent campaign, accusing them of spying and
passing information to the military and the local militia fighting them.
Boko Haram last month took the lives of two dozen
farmers working on their irrigation fields near Maiduguri in two separate
incidents.
More than 30,000 people have been killed and nearly 3
million displaced in a decade of Boko Haram's violence in Nigeria, according to
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Boko Haram’s violence has spilled over into the
neighboring countries of Chad, Niger, and Cameroon, which have created a joint
military force to fight the terrorists.
Violence by Boko Haram has affected 26 million people
in the Lake Chad region and displaced 2.6 million others, according to the UN
Refugee Agency.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/14/640688/Boko-Haram-Africa-Nigeria-Military-Kidnap-Students
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At least 27 killed in latest Boko Haram attack in
Niger
13 December 2020
Terrorists from the Boko Haram group have killed at least
27 people in an attack of “unprecedented savagery” in southeast Niger, local
officials said.
Other people were wounded and some more reported
missing in the assault on Saturday evening in the village of Toumour in the
Diffa region, said a senior local official.
Witnesses and other officials confirmed the attack,
which came hours before municipal and regional elections went ahead across the
country on Sunday.
“Some victims were killed or wounded by bullets,
others were burnt inside their houses, consumed by the flames of an enormous
fire set by the attackers,” said the official.
Between 800 and 1,000 houses, the central market and
numerous vehicles were also destroyed in the fire, he added.
Roughly 70 attackers arrived at Toumour at around 1745
GMT on foot, having swum across Lake Chad, said the official.
The attack itself lasted three hours, according to
AFP.
“They first attacked the residence of the traditional
chief, who only just managed to escape,” he said.
“It was an attack of unprecedented savagery,” said a
local elected official who asked not to be named. “Nearly 60 percent of the
village has been destroyed.”
In November, Boko Haram terrorists killed at least 110
Nigerian civilians, including dozens of farm workers, and injured several
others in the volatile northeastern state of Borno, according to the UN.
Several women were also kidnapped in the raid.
Also in October, Boko Haram terrorists took the lives
of at least 22 farmers working on their irrigation fields near Nigeria’s
Maiduguri in two separate incidents.
Northeastern Nigeria has been wracked by years of
violence involving clashes between rival communities over land, attacks by
heavily-armed criminal gangs, and reprisal killings by vigilante groups.
Boko Haram and the West Africa Province (ISWAP) branch
of the Daesh terrorist group have increasingly targeted loggers, herders and
fishermen in their violent campaign, accusing them of spying and passing
information to the military and the local militia fighting them.
More than 30,000 people have been killed and nearly 3
million displaced in a decade of Boko Haram's violence in Nigeria, according to
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/13/640673/Niger-Boko-haram-terrorist-attack
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Muslim scholars call for release of Nigerian cleric
Sheikh Zakzaky
13 December 2020
Yusef Jalali
Five years have passed since more than one thousand
Muslims were killed in a massacre in the Nigerian city of Zaria.
The incident took place when the Nigerian army stormed
a religious ceremony, organized by Nigeria's Islamic Movement, which represents
the Shia Muslim minority in the country.
On the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the
massacre, Iran's holy city of Qom held a webinar attended by Muslim scholars to
commemorate the victims of the tragedy.
Not only has the Nigerian government refrained from
paying compensation for the lives it has taken, it has also incarcerated
followers of the movement and their leader Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky, whose health
is deteriorating in prison. Scholars in Qom describe the Nigerian government as
the puppet of Saudi Arabia, the US and Israel.
They say the Nigerian forces have continued the brutal assault against Sheikh
Zakzaky's supporters ever since they publicly condemned Israel for its
atrocities against the Palestinian people.
In 2016, Nigeria’s federal high court ordered
Zakzaky’s unconditional release from jail following a trial, but the government
has so far refused to set him free.
Zakzaky was charged in April 2018 with murder,
culpable homicide, unlawful assembly and disruption of public peace, among
other accusations. He has vehemently rejected all these accusations.
Sheikh Zakzaky was due to appear in court in September
this year to face judgement on an application asking for the dismissal of the
case against him, but the trial was adjourned to next January, something that
observers say could put Sheikh's life at risk amid calls for his immediate
release because of his deteriorating health in jail.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/13/640663/Muslims-Nigeria-Sheikh-Zakzaky-Zaria-massacre
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Muslim scholars slam Morocco’s normalization of ties
with Israel
12 December 2020
Muslim scholar groups have censured a move by Morocco
to agree to normalize its relations with the Israeli regime, as the US-brokered
agreement continues to draw condemnations from around the world.
The International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS)
said in a statement that the normalization agreement “contradicts with the
Moroccan people’s support for the Palestinian people,” Turkey’s official
Anadolu news agency reported on Saturday.
The Qatar-based group added that the Israeli regime
still “occupies our al-Aqsa Mosque, Jerusalem [al-Quds], our blessed lands [in
Palestine], and the Golan Heights of Syria, and still looks to swallow more.”
US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that
Morocco had reached an agreement with Israel on the normalization of relations.
Morocco thus became the fourth Arab country — after the United Arab Emirates
(UAE), Bahrain, and Sudan — to reach such an agreement with the Tel Aviv regime
since August.
The US secured the deal by agreeing to recognize
Moroccan “sovereignty” over disputed areas in the Western Sahara.
Morocco annexed the vast Western Sahara region, a
former Spanish colony, in 1975 and has since been in conflict with the
Algeria-backed Polisario Front, a movement that seeks to establish an
independent state in the territory and end Morocco’s presence there.
Furthermore, the Arab Maghreb Scholars League (AMSL)
called on Rabat to reconsider its provocative decision to establish diplomatic
relations with the Tel Aviv regime, Anadolu reported.
The AMSL also called on Islamic governments to resist
any internal or external pressure to give up on the Palestinian cause.
All Palestinian factions have condemned the
normalization agreements with Israel, considering them a betrayal of their
cause.
On Friday, a number of Palestinian resistance groups
jointly condemned Morocco’s normalization agreement with Israel.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement has also
strongly condemned the agreement, stressing that the Arab countries having
relations with Tel Aviv will soon regret their move.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/12/640576/Muslim-scholars-slam-Morocco%E2%80%99s-normalization-of-ties-with-Israel
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Nigerian troops kill 20 Boko Haram terrorists
Adam Abu-bashal
14.12.2020
At least 20 members of the Boko Haram terrorist
organization were neutralized in an operation in northeastern Nigeria, the army
said Sunday.
Army spokesman Col. Ado Isa said in a statement that
the terrorists attempted to carry out an attack in the Askira-Uba local
government area of Borno state.
He said one soldier was killed and two others wounded
in the operation while four gun trucks of the terrorists were seized.
More than 30,000 people have been killed and nearly 3
million displaced in a decade of Boko Haram violence in Nigeria, according to
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
According to the UN Refugee Agency, violence by Boko
Haram has affected 26 million people in the Lake Chad region and displaced 2.6
million others.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/nigerian-troops-kill-20-boko-haram-terrorists/2075750
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Boko Haram kills at least 27 in southeast Niger
Fatma Esma Arslan and Kane Illa
14.12.2020
Boko Haram terrorists killed at least 27 people in
southeastern Niger, local media outlets reported Sunday.
The armed attack was carried out in the early hours of
Sunday in the village of Toumour in the Diffa region, said sources.
Nearly 800 homes and workplaces along with vehicles
were also destroyed, it added.
The Diffa region was also attacked by Boko Haram on
Friday, when two people were killed.
Located on the border with Nigeria, Diffa has been
frequently attacked by Boko Haram since February 2015.
More than 20,000 people in the country have died in
attacks carried out by Boko Haram since 2009, which have also displaced more
than 2 million people.
Elections
On Sunday, local elections were held in Niger, which
has nearly 7.5 million eligible voters. Voting started at 8 a.m. local time
(0700GMT) and ended at 6 p.m. (1700GMT).
They voted in the country’s 226 municipalities. The
ruling Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism is the favorite.
While the results are expected to be announced within
a few days, Niger will also hold presidential and general elections in two
weeks to elect 171 deputies and the country's new president.
Current President Mahamadou Issoufou will not run for
re-election after completing two terms. A total of 30 candidates will compete
in the first round of the presidential vote.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/boko-haram-kills-at-least-27-in-southeast-niger/2075738
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Southeast Asia
Indonesia arrests firebrand Islamist cleric for
breaching coronavirus restrictions
December 13, 2020
Afirebrand Indonesian Muslim cleric was arrested
Sunday for allegedly breaching coronavirus restrictions after he held a series
of sermons with tens of thousands of followers.
Rizieq Shihab's arrest came just days after Jakarta
police shot dead six followers of his hardline Islamist group in a highway
shootout.
Shihab will be detained for 20 days to prevent him
from fleeing and destroying evidence, police said.
"Another reason for the detention is for him not
to repeat the offence," National Police spokesman Argo Yuwono said Sunday.
If found guilty, he could face up to six years behind
bars for breaching coronavirus rules.
Shihab was welcomed by tens of thousands of followers at
Jakarta airport on his return from exile last month, in violation of a Covid-19
ban on gatherings.
As dozens who attended that gathering subsequently
tested positive for the coronavirus, police summoned Shihab several times for
questioning.
Indonesia has reported more than 600,000 coronavirus
infections and over 18,500 deaths, with authorities imposing nationwide
restrictions to curb the spread of the disease.
Despite those restrictions, Shihab held sermons, a
celebration of the birthday of Islam's Prophet Mohammed, and his daughter's
wedding -- all of which were attended by thousands of people.
The charismatic leader of the Islamic Defender Front
(FPI), Shihab fled to Saudi Arabia shortly after police named him a suspect in
a pornography case in 2017, and remained in exile for three years.
Since his return, he's called for a "moral
revolution".
His FPI is notorious for targeting night clubs and
other establishments it deems "immoral", and has also attacked
minority Muslim sects it considers "deviant".
He was among the main figures behind mass rallies in
2016 against the then governor of Jakarta, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, over
allegations that he insulted the Koran.
Basuki, who is Christian, was sentenced to two years
in prison for blasphemy.
https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/indonesia-arrests-firebrand-islamist-cleric-for-breaching-coronavirus-restrictions-1749177-2020-12-13
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Muis urges Muslims to take Covid-19 vaccine once
available, found to be safe and effective
Lester Wong
DEC 13, 2020
SINGAPORE - The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore
(Muis) has urged Muslims to be vaccinated once a Covid-19 vaccine is available,
and medically authorised as safe and effective.
In an irsyad- or religious guidance - issued on Sunday
(Dec 13), Muis said a Covid-19 vaccine is permissible for use by Muslims as it
is a basic necessity to protect lives in the context of a global pandemic.
"The objectives of introducing a Covid-19 vaccine
and the processes involved in producing vaccines in general are largely aligned
to established Islamic principles and values," it added, noting that Islam
places great importance on the sanctity and safety of human life as well as the
protection of livelihoods.
Muis pointed to a fatwa, or Islamic ruling, it issued
in 2013 on the rotavirus vaccine, which considered vaccines to be a form of
preventive treatment from diseases and encouraged in Islam.
"This is drawn from the Prophetic guidance that
one should consume foods that offer some protection from illnesses," it
added.
Muis' religious guidance comes on the back of concerns
from Muslims in the neighbouring countries of Malaysia and Indonesia over the
halal status of a Covid-19 vaccine.
The religious view of a Covid-19 vaccine must take a
more holistic stance that "transcends the narrow view of halalness or
permissibility of its ingredients", Muis said, setting out three areas
that it said have been carefully considered.
First, vaccines are a critical necessity in saving
lives and ensuring societies can function safely and cohesively.
A second important consideration is that any vaccine
must not have any known adverse medical effects that will cause harm to those
who take it.
On the permissibility of ingredients used in vaccines,
Muis cited a 2015 ruling on the drug Heparin, a blood thinner which contains
pig enzymes, as an example of a situation that permits the use of impure or
prohibited substances for treatment as evident in some Prophetic traditions.
"The impure substances or prohibited items used
in upstream processes would have undergone multiple layers of chemical
processes such as filtration that would render them undetectable or negligible
in the final product," Muis said.
"In such situations, the final product (drug or
vaccine) is deemed permissible for Muslim use."
In a Facebook post on Sunday, Minister-in-charge of
Muslim Affairs Masagos Zulkifli welcomed Muis' religious guidance and strongly
encouraged Muslims to be vaccinated once the vaccines are available in
Singapore.
"I am thankful to our religious leaders, who are
highly knowledgeable, progressive, enlightened, and attuned to the concerns of
our Malay/Muslim community in the context of the global pandemic," he
said.
https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/muis-urges-muslims-to-take-covid-19-vaccine-once-it-is-available-found-to-be-safe-and
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What hardline Islamic cleric Rizieq Shihab’s return
means for Indonesian politics
14 Dec 2020
JAKARTA, Dec 14 — Indonesian police arrested firebrand
Islamic cleric Rizieq Shihab on Saturday on suspicion of violating coronavirus
protocols after the staging of several mass gatherings since his return from
self-exile in Saudi Arabia last month.
The arrest comes after six of his bodyguards were shot
dead by police last week and raises further concerns about a boiling over of tensions
between authorities and Islamist groups in the world’s biggest Muslim majority
nation.
Who is Rizieq Shihab?
As head of the hardline Islamic Defender’s Front
(FPI), Rizieq has for years cut a controversial figure in Indonesian politics.
He was jailed in 2008 for inciting violence and left
Indonesia in 2017 after facing charges of pornography, and insulting state
ideology. Those charges have since been dropped.
Formed in 1998, in the tumultuous months after
president Suharto stood down, the FPI initially had close links to security
forces and became notorious for raiding bars and brothels, as well as violence
against minorities, and preventing a Lady Gaga concert. It has also been
involved in humanitarian work after natural disasters.
But moving from the fringes it has increased its
political sway and in 2016 Rizieq was a key figure in a mass movement against
Jakarta’s former Christian governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, or Ahok, who was
jailed for insulting Islam.
The huge 2016 rallies raised concern about a threat to
Indonesia’s pluralist tradition and its secular state. President Joko Widodo,
known as Jokowi, also viewed them as among the biggest threats to his
government.
In the weeks since his return, Rizieq has declared
plans for a “moral revolution”.
Why was Rizieq arrested?
After twice ignoring police summonses, Rizieq turned
himself in and was arrested.
He was charged with obstruction of law enforcement,
incitement of criminal acts and violation of the quarantine law. He could face
a maximum six years in prison if convicted.
The charges relate to mass events including the tens
of thousands of people who showed up to greet Rizieq at the airport and his
daughter’s well-attended wedding.
What happened in the shootout?
Police say they were tailing a convoy of Rizieq
supporters after hearing the FPI was preparing to mobilise. Police say they
acted in self-defence when they shot the six supporters dead after firearms
were pointed at them.
The FPI has described the incident as an
“extrajudicial killing” and said Rizieq and his entourage were unarmed and
travelling to a dawn prayer when attacked by unknown assailants.
Amnesty International Indonesia and Indonesia Police
Watch have called for an independent investigation, and Indonesia’s human
rights commission has since opened a probe.
How big a force Islam in Indonesian politics?
With nearly 90 per cent of the population Muslim,
Islam has always been important in Indonesian politics. Every president has
been Muslim and the 2016 rallies saw Islam take on an increasingly prominent
political role.
In a move seen as an attempt to appeal to Islamic
voters, Jokowi chose cleric, Ma’ruf Amin, as his vice presidential running mate
in 2019 and after the election appointed his poll opponent, Prabowo Subianto,
who had backing from Islamist groups, as defence minister.
What could happen now?
Political analysts say given an opposition vacuum, the
pandemic and the first recession in 22 years, Rizieq could harness frustrations
with the government and pose a threat.
The 55-year-old has already met with several key
opposition figures and there is a sense that he could be a kingmaker in the
2024 election.
More immediately, the police clash has seen the FPI
hail the dead as ‘martyrs’ and call for demonstrations.
According to sources and analysts the government
grossly underestimated Rizieq’s continued appeal and quickly understood it
needed to carefully calibrate its response to Rizieq.
Despite a more vocal backlash from pluralists and
moderate Islamic groups toward Rizieq this year, the fatal clash is unlikely to
have met the careful approach the administration had been aiming for. — Reuters
https://www.malaymail.com/news/world/2020/12/14/what-hardline-islamic-cleric-rizieq-shihabs-return-means-for-indonesian-pol/1931775
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Professor Wan Maseri’s teachings to be referred to
National Fatwa Council
12 Dec 2020
KOTA BHARU, Dec 12 — Issues on the teachings of
“Asmaul Husna Wan Maseri” which is alleged to be deviant from Islam will be
referred to the National Fatwa Council for further evaluation and decision,
said Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs)
Ahmad Marzuk Shaary.
According to him, the matter had previously been
raised and discussed several times in the Religious Division of the Prime Minister’s
Department in post-cabinet meetings.
He said initial information found that there were
deviations in terms of the beliefs of Ahli Sunnah Wal Jamaah in the teachings
of “Asmaul Husna Wan Maseri”.
“As we know, each state government has the power to
issue a fatwa on a teaching whether it is misguided or not.
So far, the teaching was alleged to have surfaced in
Pahang and a fatwa on it has been issued as a deviation from Ahli Sunnah Wal
Jamaah.
Apart from that, several states had taken the same
action, including the Federal Territories, “he told reporters after the
Covid-19 Musaadah Contribution Presentation Ceremony at the Pengkalan Chepa
Parliamentary Level here, today.
It is understood that the teachings allegedly founded
by Professor Wan Maseri Wan Ahmad had now been declared as heretical and
misleading in Terengganu, Negeri Sembilan and several other states.
Ahmad Marzuk said, his ministry wanted to advise the
communities, which were not fully aware about any teaching being taught, to be
careful.
The individual who was said to be spreading this
teaching was also no longer a member of PAS and had been sacked even though she
had previously been a candidate in the general election, “he said.
Commenting further, he said so far the Federal
Territories Mufti Department and the Akidah (Faith) Division under the
Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) had been entrusted to obtain
more information from the individual concerned. — Bernama
https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2020/12/12/professor-wan-maseris-teachings-to-be-referred-to-national-fatwa-council/1931331
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Indonesian police arrest top Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah
Islamiah militant
13 December 2020
Indonesian police said they have arrested one of the
senior-most members of the Al Qaeda-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiah who
is said to be behind the 2002 bombings on the resort island of Bali that killed
over 200 people.
Jemaah Islamiah’s stated aim is to build an Islamic
caliphate in Southeast Asia.
Zulkarnaen, one of the commanders of the Bali attack,
was arrested on Thursday by anti-terrorism police, spokesman Ahmad Ramadhan
said in a statement on Saturday.
He said the officers met no resistance.
Reuters was unable to reach Zulkarnaen or find out
whether he had any legal representation. According to a UN Security Council
report, he also goes by the name Aris Sumarsono.
Zulkarnaen is believed to have been involved in making
the bombs that were used in the Bali attacks and in the bombing of the J.W.
Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta in 2009 that killed nine people.
Jemaah Islamiah’s former leader Para Wijayanto was
arrested in 2019.
Stanislaus Riyanta, a security analyst, said that
Zulkarnaen’s arrest could either weaken Jemaah Islamiah’s operations or “spur
them into action to prove their existence or seek revenge.”
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/12/13/Indonesian-police-arrest-top-Al-Qaeda-linked-Jemaah-Islamiah-militant
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Arab World
‘Fake news’ in Lebanon causes anxiety, panic for those
bombarded with misinformation
Bassam ZaaZaa
14 December 2020
When a 40-year-old businesswoman read on WhatsApp a
broadcast message that her Lebanese bank was announcing bankruptcy she almost
had a heart attack.
Hala Mohammad had an uncomfortable feeling all night
after seeing the unverified announcement, not knowing the fate of her savings
and deposits.
Her friend, who had shared that image, and her
friend’s parents are clients of the same bank where Mohammad’s husband also
works.
The family had done business at the bank for decades
and they were furious until the next morning when they confirmed that the
message had been nothing but a rumor.
Rumors that ping from phone to phone can create panic
and fear, and in Lebanon, social media users face such rumors on a daily basis.
The constant of barrage of unverified content can
stress social media users out, especially when the news could potentially
heavily impact their life.
Misinformation on a former prime minister’s demise
In another instance, an image of former Prime Minister
Salim al-Hoss surfaced nearly three weeks ago on WhatsApp and Facebook
announcing his death. The image was picked up by various news websites.
However, al-Hoss was, and is, alive, and his grandson
posted a picture of himself with the former prime minister hanging out on a
balcony.
Storekeeper Mohammed Ebrahim said sharing
misinformation on social media scares users and triggers mental stress,
especially when the news is related to the already ailing economy of Lebanon.
“Last week my daughter received a WhatsApp image
informing her that their exam had been cancelled. At first she was happy, but
then she called her school and it turned out to be a rumor or what her
classmates described [as] a joke,” Ebrahim said.
Some Lebanese are fed up with the constant stream of
unverified information flooding their phones.
“I have stopped sharing any unsourced or unverified
news or rumors on WhatsApp because this has become a very stressful practice.
We are fed up,” Maha C., an artist, told Al Arabiya English.
Social media users are bombarded with factoids
Today, there is an onslaught of information on the
internet, and social media users are often ill-equipped to distinguish what is
real and what is fake. This can have polarizing effects on a society, and for
individuals, some misinformation can be anxiety inducing.
“People are bombarded by too many so-called factoids
every day that make it so hard to differentiate between fact and fiction,”
Mahmoud Ghandour, a certified hypnotherapist and corporate trainer, told Al
Arabiya English.
Misinformation shocks recipients who end up not
knowing how to deal with it and unable to check its credibility, expert on
sociology of conflicts Samah Halwany said.
“Misinformation and fake news burdens recipients, who
end up wanting to get rid of that burden by sharing it on social media.
Recipients would immediately resort to social media as a mean to dismiss the
stress and burden caused by the fake news and misinformation. When
misinformation frightens recipients, the latter would want others to share that
same feeling so they share the content on social media for others to be scared
also,” Halwany explained.
A recipient, who forwards to others misinformation
received, realizes that others who see the misinformation will interact with it
or share the content, according to Halwany, who said those recipients would
feel that someone has given them attention or cooperated with them.
A psychological specialist at the Lebanese University
Myrna al-Sayed said social media is a powerful tool that impacts the public,
positively or negatively.
“Sometimes a rumor could be partly factual but is
purposely manipulated by promoters/launchers to serve hidden motives or
personal gains,” she said.
Al-Sayed emphasized that those who launch rumors take
advantage of insecurities and difficult circumstances facing the public and aim
to irritate individuals, who are seeking information and explanation of some
sort of event or phenomenon.
“When rumors are circulated, individuals turn
skeptical due to the lack of political stability … meanwhile the recurrence of
catastrophes triggers fear and stress among society members,” said al-Sayed,
who stressed that the rumors’ launchers often do so for financial or commercial
gains, amassing followers and likes on posts.
Sometimes individuals launch rumors to test the
public’s readiness to accept decisions or laws that are expected to be
announced by policymakers, according to al-Sayed.
A neuro-linguistic-programming practitioner at Mind
Your Power, Ghandour said they help patients, through hypnotherapy, erase any
remnants of unwanted fake information that have been lodged in their
subconscious.
“Minds are programed to process information they get
even during sleep … so sleep ailments occur when the information is worrisome.
We try our best during treatment to make people differentiate between truths
and lies. We teach them how to triangulate (getting the same news from three
different sources) any news that they get in order to ensure that they are true
and creating a built in filter,” he concluded.
Irresponsible and illegal
Al-Sayed said that it is irresponsible to knowingly
spread such rumors, and those who make them up often aim to “incite sectarian
and partisan strife amongst the public.”
“They also enjoy destroying the psychological
stability of others and breaking up internal morale,” al-Sayed said, calling on
society to combat rumors through awareness campaigns in coordination with
mainstream media and pertinent authorities.
Lawyer Joceline al-Rai said the act of sharing
misinformation is punishable by law, especially if it aims to tarnish the
reputation of an individual, entity, or the state.
“A person, who spreads fake news or a rumor using any
median, in a context that libels or defames a person, entity or the state or
jeopardizes the country’s unity and harmony could be tried and face an
imprisonment or a fine according to a judge’s discretion,” al-Rai said.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2020/12/14/Lebanon-crisis-Fake-news-in-Lebanon-causes-anxiety-panic-for-those-bombarded-with-misinformation
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UAE, Israel export credit agencies sign agreement
following peace deal
13 December 2020
The export credit agencies of the United Arab Emirates
(UAE) and Israel have signed a cooperation agreement to develop economic relations
between the two countries, UAE’s state news agency WAM said.
The UAE’s Etihad Credit Insurance and the Israel
Foreign Trade Risks Insurance Corporation plan to jointly support exports,
trade, and investment between the two countries, WAM said, after they agreed to
normalize relations in August.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2020/12/13/Israel-relations-UAE-Israel-export-credit-agencies-sign-agreement-following-peace-deal
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After Israel visit, Emiratis return to UAE with
positive views of Palestinians
Emily Judd and Jennifer Bell
13 December 2020
The first Emiratis who traveled to Israel have
returned home with positive impressions of Palestinians, contrary to reports of
tension between the two peoples following the UAE’s normalization with Israel.
Direct commercial flights between the UAE and Israel
began on November 26, allowing Emirati civilians like Ahmad Bin Harib and his
friends to travel to Israel for the first time in history.
Harib, who visited Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, said his
group received a warm welcome from both Israelis and Palestinians.
“Our interactions with the Palestinians were very
positive. They welcomed us and greeted us when they knew we were from the UAE.
They seemed really happy in meeting us,” Harib said in an interview with Al
Arabiya English.
“And we were extremely happy in meeting our
Palestinian brothers,” he added.
In awe of Al Aqsa
The highlight of Harib’s trip was visiting the third
holiest site in Islam, Al Aqsa, located in East Jerusalem. The site has long
been the source of conflict between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Muslims due to
Jewish claims to the land as the Temple Mount.
“The visit was extremely pleasant and welcoming from
the Muslims, Christians, and Jews. I saw firsthand how they all live in unison
– in contradiction to what is portrayed by some of the media outlets in the
region,” Harib said.
Bader Mubarak, part of a UAE senior delegation who
visited Israel in October, said praying in Al Aqsa was “the most elating and
breathtaking moment” of his trip.
Mubarak visited the cities of Jerusalem, Jaffa, Tel
Aviv, and Haifa as part of a visit that aimed to discover high-tech innovation
and business opportunities in Israel.
“We visited sites as old as history and interacted
with Israelis as well as Palestinians. We didn’t encounter any problems nor
difficulties while being there,” Mubarak said.
Dissenting voices
However, not all Palestinians have welcomed Emiratis
following the UAE’s normalization with Israel.
Last month, a Palestinian guard at the Al Aqsa
compound, which includes the Dome of the Rock and five other mosques, harassed
a group from the UAE. The video of the incident went viral on social media.
The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem has also issued a fatwa
banning Emiratis from praying at Al Aqsa, which has been condemned by senior
Muslim religious leaders around the world.
Emiratis planning their visit
Emiratis like May Al Badi are undeterred by the few
hostile Palestinian voices and have plans to travel to Israel in the coming
weeks.
A member of the UAE-Israel Business Council, Al Badi
has long held a dream to visit Israel and began learning Hebrew last year. She
is currently co-authoring a book on Emirati food for kosher households.
“I am planning to go as soon as possible,” Al Badi
told Al Arabiya English. “It has always been a dream of mine and I think the
Abraham Accords have opened up a lot of opportunities - be it business
opportunities, leisure opportunities or tourism opportunities.”
“We are all very excited about this and I cannot wait
to visit the country I have always wanted to go to,” she added.
The UAE announced it would normalize relations with
Israel on August 13, in exchange for the Israeli government’s suspension of
plans to annex Palestinian land.
In September, diplomatic ties were formalized during a
signing ceremony of the peace agreement, known as the Abraham Accords,
alongside fellow Gulf state Bahrain at the White House.
Since then, relations between the two governments and
peoples have progressed at “breakneck speed,” according to Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, including the establishment of a UAE-Israel
Business Council and a Hebrew language academy in the UAE.
Israeli delegations and civilians have already started
traveling to the UAE, with some being welcomed by Al Badi.
“I have shown them Etihad museum, the Burj Khalifa,
and hidden gems such as Emirati restaurants and cafes,” she said.
“As an Emirati, I feel obliged to share knowledge
about my country’s culture and history. I can’t wait to be the one who now experiences
their culture,” she added.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/gulf/2020/12/13/After-Israel-visit-Emiratis-return-to-UAE-with-positive-views-of-Palestinians
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One sheriff in town: Saudi Arabia launches 'mini Ritz'
crackdown, sparks terror
14 December 2020
Saudi Arabia has launched a new purported
anti-corruption crackdown resembling the 2017 campaign, sparking further terror
in the kingdom.
Reports say the new crackdown, which has targeted
top-ranking military officials as well as low-key municipal, health and
environment officials, aims to tighten Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
(MBS)’s grip on power.
The drive emphasizes that "there is only one
sheriff in town", French news agency AFP quoted an observer in Saudi
Arabia as saying.
The crackdown is widely dubbed as a "mini
Ritz" operation, a reference to the November 2017 clampdown that saw
princes and tycoons rounded up and detained at the luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel in
Riyadh over similar corruption charges.
The detentions had been ordered by Saudi Arabia’s
so-called Anti-Corruption Committee headed by bin Salman in a crackdown widely
believed to be aimed at consolidating his power.
The recent crackdown has led to scores of detentions
in recent months and the seizure of hoards of cash.
The official anti-corruption agency Nazaha said in its
reports published on state media that it has caught bribe-seekers
"red-handed" in live raids.
Last month, the crown prince told the advisory Shura
Council that the alleged anti-corruption campaign had yielded 247 billion
riyals ($66 billion) over the last three years in addition to assets, real
estate and stocks worth billions more.
But the New York-based Human Rights Watch warned
earlier this year of "unfair legal proceedings" in an opaque judicial
system.
Some speculate that the purge is a cover to replenish
state coffers amid a deep economic contraction.
One Saudi academic told AFP he suspects the "real
targets are not the corrupt, but fines and new sources of revenue", noting
that there is no transparency over how the government will utilize the seized
cash and assets.
Others have suggested that the drive aims to root out
security officials not deemed loyal enough to the rulers.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/14/640691/Saudi-launches-new-crackdown
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Explosion hits tanker off Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah
14 December 2020
A shipping firm says an explosion has hit a fuel
tanker off Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah, a key Red Sea port and distribution center
for oil giant Saudi Aramco.
The BW Group said in a statement that the ship
suffered a blast early Monday after being hit by “an external source”.
According to the report, the Singapore-flagged BW
Rhine saw all 22 sailors on board escape without injury.
The firm warned it was possible some oil had leaked
out from the site of the incident.
Dryad Global, a London-based maritime intelligence
firm, also reported the explosion.
The United Kingdom Marine Trade Operations, which is
linked to the British navy, called on ships in the area to “exercise extreme
caution.”
No one immediately elaborated on the cause. The Saudi
authorities have yet to confirm the blast.
Last month, an explosion rocked a Greek-operated oil
tanker docked at Saudi Arabia's southern port of Shuqaiq. The Riyadh-led
military coalition blamed the attack on Yemen's Houthi Ansarullah movement,
which has not commented on the incident.
This week’s blast comes as Yemeni forces have been
conducting retaliatory attacks against Saudi Arabia over the kingdom’s bloody
military campaign against their impoverished nation.
Last month, the spokesman for Yemen's Armed Forces,
Brigadier General Yahya Saree, said that a distribution station operated by the
Saudi Aramco oil company in Jeddah was targeted by the Quds-2 winged missile
with high precision.
Saudi Arabia and a number of its regional allies
launched their devastating war on Yemen in March 2015 in order to bring former
president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, back to power and crush the Ansarullah
movement.
The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project
(ACLED), a nonprofit conflict-research organization, estimates that the war has
claimed more than 100,000 lives over the past five years.
Riyadh and its allies have widely been criticized for
the high civilian death toll as a result of their bombing campaign in Yemen.
The UN says more than 24 million Yemenis are in dire
need of humanitarian aid, including 10 million suffering from extreme levels of
hunger. The world body also refers to the situation in Yemen as the world's
worst humanitarian crisis.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/14/640680/Explosion-hits-ship-Saudi-Arabia-Jeddah
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Turkish-backed militants attack areas in northeastern
Syria
13 December 2020
Turkish-backed Takfiri militants have launched a
series of artillery attacks in the northwestern Syrian city of Raqqah.
Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that the
attacks were carried out on the outskirts of the town of Ayn Issa on Sunday.
The militants have often launched raids to occupy
homes, steal agricultural machinery, power generators and snatch other precious
items in the region.
The Turkish government has been supporting the
militants since they were deployed to northeastern Syria in October 2019, when
the Turkish military launched a long-threatened cross-border invasion in a
declared attempt to push militants of the Kurdish People's Protection Units
(YPG) away from border areas.
Ankara views the US-backed YPG as a terrorist
organization tied to the homegrown Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has
been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region in Turkey since 1984.
Separately, SANA said three militants affiliated with
the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) were killed after their vehicles
and positions came under attack in Syria’s northeastern provinces of Hasakah
and Dayr al-Zawr.
The SDF militants, who are patronized by the United
States, also kidnapped a number of people, including a child, after raids in
the towns of Shahel and Tayyana, located on the eastern countryside of Dayr
al-Zawr.
Local Syrians complain that the SDF’s constant raids
have generated a state of frustration and instability, severely affecting their
businesses and livelihood.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/13/640661/Turkish-backed-militants-Syria
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US plan to blacklist Iraqi Badr Organization as
terrorist meant to protect Israel: Official
13 December 2020
A senior member of the Badr Organization, whose group
is a part of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces (PMU), also known by their
Arabic name Hashd al-Sha’abi, has slammed Washington’s attempts to classify his
organization as terrorist, stressing that such measures are meant to protect
the Israeli regime.
“We do not care about the White House’s efforts to
place the Badr Organization on the [so-called] US terror blacklist. Badr is an
organization that has its own supporters and institutions. It is represented by
a parliamentary faction and has more than 50 legislators in Fatah (Conquest)
Alliance,” Qusay al-Anbari, a spokesman for the organization, told
Arabic-language al-Ahad news agency on Saturday.
He added, “Badr Organization is a part of the Iraqi
political system and nation, and will not be affected by such evil plots.
Everyone knows that the United States is working to protect the Zionist regime
through various means, and is fighting resistance groups to prevent them from
defending Palestine and the Arab world.”
The remarks come as the US Congress is seeking to
enact a new legislation that would designate the Badr Organization as a terror
group, according to a copy of the bill obtained exclusively by the Washington
Free Beacon newspaper.
The newspaper said that a member of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee, Representative Joe Wilson, is leading such efforts.
Back on October 18, a political adviser to Iraqi
officials and leading member of the State of Law Coalition said the United
States is trying to eradicate Hashd al-Sha'abi by force and has even devised an
action plan for such a purpose.
Saad al-Muttalibi told Arabic-language al-Nujaba
television network in an interview at the time that not only had Iraqi
authorities been informed of the plan, but also some political factions.
Muttalibi noted that a number of US state institutions
have come to the conclusion that Hashd al-Sha’abi can only be removed from
Iraq’s arena by military force.
He went on to say that Washington intends to
assassinate some high-ranking Hashd al-Sha’abi commanders and instigate clashes
with other Iraqi armed forces as part of preparation for the total annihilation
of the PMU.
Hashd al-Sh’abai fighters have played a major role in
the liberation of Daesh-held areas to the south, northeast and north of the
Iraqi capital Baghdad, ever since the terrorists launched an offensive in the
country in June 2014.
Back in November 2016, the Iraqi parliament approved a
law giving full legal status to the fighters. It recognized the PMU as part of
the national armed forces, placed the forces under the command of the prime
minister, and granted them the right to receive salaries and pensions like the
regular army and police forces.
On March 27, the New York Times reported that the
Pentagon had ordered a secret directive, which called on US military commanders
to prepare a campaign against Kata'ib Hezbollah, which is part of Hashd
al-Sha’abi.
But the United States’ top commander in Iraq at the
time, Lieutenant General Robert P. White, warned that such a campaign could be
bloody and counterproductive.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/13/640655/US-bids-to-designate-Iraqi-Badr-Organization-as-terrorist-meant-to-protect-Israel-Official
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Syrian media: US military tankers smuggle crude oil
from Hasakah to Iraq again
13 December 2020
A convoy of dozens of US tankers has left Syria’s
northeastern province of Hasakah for the neighboring Iraq laden with the Arab country’s
crude oil, as Washington continues looting Syria's energy resources.
Syria’s official news agency SANA, citing local
sources in the village of al-Sweidyia, reported that a convoy of 85 military
vehicles and tankers departed Syria through al-Walid border crossing on Sunday,
heading towards Iraqi territories.
The sources added that 16 armored vehicles belonging
to the US military escorted the convoy until it reached the border crossing.
During recent months, the US military has increased
smuggling Syria's oil through the Iraqi soil.
On December 9, local sources, requesting not to be
named, told SANA that a convoy of 60 US military vehicles and tankers rumbled
through al-Walid border crossing and headed towards western Iraq after being
filled with crude from Rmeilan oil fields in Syria’s Hasakah province.
The US first confirmed its looting of Syrian oil
during a Senate hearing exchange between South Carolina Republican Senator
Lindsey Graham and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in late July.
On July 30 and during his testimony to the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, Pompeo confirmed for the first time that an
American oil company would begin work in northeastern Syria, which is
controlled by militants from the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The Syrian government strongly condemned the
agreement, saying that the deal was struck to plunder the country's natural
resources, including oil and gas, under the sponsorship and support of the
administration of US President Donald Trump.
Syrian army finds Israeli-made weapons in southern
region
Also on Sunday, Syrian government forces confiscated a
large amount of weapons and ammunition, some of which are Israeli-made, in a
southern region of the country.
The seized weapons were found in former strongholds of
foreign-backed Takfiri terrorists, and included heavy and light weapons, some
of which are Israeli-made, as well as an unmanned aerial vehicle.
Dozens of automatic rifles, sniper rifles, 23mm and
12.7mm machine guns, shoulder-launched missiles, rocket-propelled grenades of
various calibers, and more than 300 metal bullet boxes were also among the
confiscated weapons.
Syrian army has discovered several batches of weapons
in the southern province of Dara’a and elsewhere across the country after defeating
Takfiri terrorists.
Dara’a province holds major significance as it was the
birthplace of the nine-year-old Syria conflict, and government troops are still
finding weapons in that area as part of a wide-scale clean-up campaign that
followed the liberation of Dara’a in 2018.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/13/640642/US-military-tankers-smuggle-crude-oil-from-Syria-Hasakah-to-Iraq-again
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Mideast
Iran jails British-Iranian researcher for 9 years for
‘subversive’ research work
13 December 2020
A court in Iran has handed a nine-year jail sentence
to British-Iranian anthropologist Kameel Ahmady, after convicting him of
conducting “subversive” research work, the semi-official news agency Tasnim
said on Sunday.
Ahmady was also fined 600,000 euros ($727,000) - the
sum Iranian authorities said he received for his research from institutions
accused of seeking to topple Iran’s Islamic government, Tasnim reported.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
There was no immediate official confirmation of the
sentence, which was also reported by other Iranian news agencies and a human
rights groups.
“Ahmady was accused of acquiring illicit property from
his cooperation in implementing subversive institutions’ projects in the
country,” Tasnim said.
Ahmady, an ethnic Kurd who had researched
controversial issues such as child marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM)
in Iran, was detained in August 2019 but released on bail three months later,
according to human rights groups.
After his arrest, his wife told the New York-based
Center for Human Rights in Iran that his work was independent and published
with government approval.
Rights activists have accused Iran of arresting dozens
of dual nationals to try to win concessions from other countries - a charge
that the Islamic republic has regularly dismissed.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/12/14/Iran-jails-British-Iranian-researcher-for-9-years-for-subversive-research-work
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Iran forum postponed as journalist, diplomats withdraw
over journalist’s execution
Yaghoub Fazeli
13 December 2020
A Tehran-based business forum that aimed to promote
trade between Europe and the Islamic Republic was postponed a day before it was
set to start after journalists and diplomats were successfully pressured to
withdraw over the execution of Iranian dissident journalist Ruhollah Zam.
“The organizing committee of the Europe-Iran Business
Forum has decided to take the exceptional step of postponing the conference,
which was slated to take place on December 14-16 as an online event,” the
Europe-Iran Business Forum said in a statement.
For all the latest headlines follow our Google News
channel online or via the app.
The statement did not say why the event has been
postponed.
Meanwhile, the French Foreign Ministry tweeted that
the French, German, Austrian and Italian envoys to Tehran will no longer attend
the forum due to Iran’s “barbaric and unacceptable” execution of Zam.
Earlier today, Iran summoned the envoys of Germany and
France after the two European countries condemned Zam’s execution.
Zam, who Iran convicted of inciting violence during
anti-government protests in late 2017, was executed on Saturday, state media
reported. He ran Amadnews, a channel on popular messaging app Telegram which
had over a million followers.
Iranian agents reportedly captured Zam during a visit
to Iraq in 2019. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said at the
time they had “trapped” Zam in a “complex operation using intelligence
deception.”
There had already been calls for a boycott of the
forum due to Iran’s human rights record, but these calls intensified following
Zam’s execution, with critics arguing that such events only benefit the Iranian
regime and “normalize” its suppression of dissent.
Prior to the forum’s postponement, Patrick Wintour,
diplomatic editor at The Guardian who was on the speakers’ list had tweeted
that he would not attend the event in protest of Zam’s execution.
“For those interested: after Iran's abhorrent
execution of fellow journalist Ruhollah Zam, I am not chairing tomorrow's
discussion with EU envoys based in Tehran on economic relations with Iran,”
Wintour tweeted.
In addition to European envoys, Iran’s Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the European Union’s foreign policy chief
Josep Borrell were also scheduled to speak at the event.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/12/13/Tehran-based-conference-cancelled-after-European-ambassadors-withdraw
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‘Business as usual with Iran’ will be mistake:
Israel’s Netanyahu
13 December 2020
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday
said it would be a mistake “to go back to business as usual with Iran,”
signaling Israeli resistance to an expected push by President-elect Joe Biden
to revive the international nuclear deal with Iran.
Netanyahu spoke at a press conference with Robert
O’Brien, President Donald Trump’s national security adviser.
But his comments appeared to be aimed at Biden, who
has said the US will rejoin the nuclear deal if Iran agrees to strict
adherence. The deal, which lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on
its nuclear program, has unraveled since Trump withdrew from it in 2018.
Netanyahu led an unsuccessful fight against the deal
when it was negotiated by then-President Barack Obama in 2015 and welcomed
Trump’s withdrawal three years later.
Netanyahu says the deal will not prevent Iran from
developing a nuclear weapon and fails to address other belligerent Iranian
behavior, such as its support for proxies across the region and its development
of a long-range missile program.
“As long as Iran continues to subjugate and threaten
its neighbors, as long as Iran continues calling for Israel’s destruction, as
long as Iran continues to bankroll, equip and train terrorist organizations
throughout the region and the world, and as long as Iran persists in its
dangerous quest for nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them, we shouldn’t
go back to business as usual with Iran,” Netanyahu said Sunday.
“We should all unite to prevent this major threat to
world peace.”
O’Brien arrived days after the US announced that
Israel and Morocco were establishing full diplomatic relations — making it the
fourth such deal between Israel and an Arab state brokered by the outgoing
Trump administration.
O’Brien said the Trump administration’s pressure
campaign against Iran has been successful and said the string of agreements
between Israel and Arab countries would cement what he called “the legacies of
peacemakers” Trump and Netanyahu.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/12/13/-Business-as-usual-with-Iran-will-be-mistake-Israel-s-Netanyahu
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Hamas says armed struggle only way to confront
'Zionist enemy'
13 December 2020
A top official of the Palestinian resistance movement,
Hamas, says the movement believes that armed struggle is still the sole way of
confronting the “Zionist enemy” while condemning recent moves by certain Arab
countries to normalize ties with Israel.
The announcement was made by Naseem Yassin in a Sunday
event during which the movement announced that it was canceling a ceremony
planned to mark its 33rd establishment anniversary in the light of the ongoing
pandemic of the deadly new coronavirus.
“Today, we recall the founder [of Hamas] martyr Sheikh
Ahmed Yassin, who despite his suffering presented a patriotic model in
sacrifice and working for the unity of Palestinians and armed struggle for
Palestine,” he added, as quoted by the Palestinian Information Center.
Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas, was
assassinated along with a number of his guards on March 22, 2004, when an
Israeli aircraft targeted them with Hellfire missiles as the 67-year-old leader
was being wheeled out of an early morning prayer session held at a mosque close
to his house in Gaza City.
The Hamas official further stated that the 33rd
anniversary of Hamas comes at a time that the Palestinian cause is going
through great challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic has also compounded the
problems facing Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has been suffering from
an immoral Israeli-imposed blockade from land, air, and sea since 2007.
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 densely-populated enclave.
Yassin added that Hamas still believes that armed
struggle is the only feasible means of confronting the “Zionist enemy,” while
negotiations, normalization, and security coordination [with Israel] are mere illusions.
His remarks come as four Arab countries – namely the
United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Sudan, and quite recently Morocco –
reached much-condemned US-brokered agreements with Israel on the normalization
of relations.
Yassin also called on all Palestinians to strengthen
the sense of solidarity throughout the Palestinian nation and to launch
charitable initiatives to enhance the steadfastness of Palestinians in the face
of all challenges and threats posed by the Tel Aviv regime.
Morocco, Israel normalization “poisonous stab” to
Palestinian cause: Hamas
Separately on Sunday, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a co-founder
of Hamas and a member of the group's leadership in the Gaza Strip, said the
recent declaration of normalization of relations between Morocco and Israel is
a “poisonous stab” to the Palestinian cause and the entire Muslim nation.
The top Hamas official, who is also the head of Hamas’
parliamentary Change and Reform Bloc, made the comments during a speech he
delivered at the Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza City, the Palestinian
Information Center reported.
US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that
Morocco had reached an agreement with Israel on the normalization of relations.
Morocco, thus, became the fourth Arab country — after the United Arab Emirates
(UAE), Bahrain, and Sudan — to reach such an agreement with the Tel Aviv regime
since August.
The US secured the deal by agreeing to recognize
Moroccan “sovereignty” over disputed areas in Western Sahara.
Morocco annexed the vast Western Sahara region, a
former Spanish colony, in 1975 and has since been in conflict with the
Algeria-backed Polisario Front, a movement that seeks to establish an
independent state in the territory and end Morocco’s presence there.
Al-Zahar described normalization of relations with the
Israel as “a complete deviation by the normalizing regimes with the (Israeli)
occupation from the values and constants of the Arab and Islamic nation.”
The senior Hamas official also said that the so-called
normalization is also a betrayal of the Moroccan martyrs who defended the land
of the Holy City and who built it until one of the Jerusalem al-Quds
neighborhoods and one of the gates of the al-Aqsa Mosque were named after them.
“Normalization is a reward to the Zionist occupation
for its crimes against the Palestinian people and its aggression against the
[Palestinian] nation. Israel exploits these deals to escalate its persistent
aggression against Jerusalem and al-Aqsa, confiscate land, establish
settlements, arrest women and children, demolish homes and besiege the
defenseless Palestinian people”, al-Zahar stressed.
He also appealed to all Moroccans to strongly protest
against the crime of normalization and not accept the cheap bargain that Trump
forged at the expense of the rights, constants, and sanctities of the Muslim
nation.
“Normalization with the occupier in exchange for
forfeiting one of the Muslim nation’s sanctities is high treason and a crime
against our religion and a political, human and moral crime aimed at liquidating
the Palestinian cause and giving false legitimacy to the Zionist occupation of
Jerusalem, Al-Aqsa, and Palestine,” al-Zahar concluded.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/13/640664/Palestine-Hamas-armed-struggle-Israel-Yassin-Gaza-US-normalization-Morocco-
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Israeli forces arrest dozens of Palestinians in West
Bank, al-Quds
13 December 2020
Israeli forces have arrested dozens of Palestinians,
including teenagers, a child and a journalist, in the occupied West Bank and
Jerusalem al-Quds.
According to the Palestinian Information Center, the
arrests were made during raids on Saturday night and at dawn on Sunday.
The troops damaged property and terrorized residents,
particularly women and children.
The report said the Israeli forces stormed the martyr
Muhammad Ubaid neighborhood of Issawiya.
Tens of people also suffered from asphyxiation after
tear gas canisters were fired by the forces.
Palestinian journalist Muhannad Qafisha was beaten and
injured by several Israeli settlers from the Ramat Yishai and Beit Hadassah
settlements in the center of al-Khalil. He was then arrested by the soldiers
but later released on bail.
The Israeli regime frequently violates the rights of
Palestinians. Palestinian youths, and even minors, are detained for long periods
of time.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS), a
Palestinian human rights group, reported last month that the regime had
detained at least 400 Palestinian children in the first 10 months of the
current year.
“The Israeli authorities continue to hold 170
Palestinian children in their prisons,” read the PPS report, which was issued
on November 19.
In a statement at the end of 2019, the rights group
said Israeli authorities had arrested more than 5,500 Palestinians in 2019,
including about 890 children and nearly 130 women.
In 2015, Israel legalized the issuance of high prison
sentences for children, in some cases up to life imprisonment. According to the
PPS, Israel has arrested about 7,000 children since that year.
The detentions continue despite condemnation from all
over the world.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/13/640662/Israel-Palestinians-West-Bank-Quds
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Palestinians condemn Israel-Morocco normalisation deal
13 December 2020
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip condemn the new normalization
deal between Israel and Morocco, saying it will weaken the Palestinian cause.
The Hamas movement, which controls the Palestinian
enclave, also condemns the deal and calls on the parliament of Morocco to
"criminalise" the normalisation between the two countries.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/13/640650/Gaza-Israel-Morocco-deal
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Turkey to send ambassador to Israel for first time in
two years: Paper
14 December 2020
Turkey has selected a new ambassador to send to Israel
after Ankara recalled its envoys in 2018 over the killing of Palestinians in
the Gaza Strip at the hands of Israeli forces, media reports say.
The candidate is the 40-year-old Ufuk Ulutas, the
chairman for the Center for Strategic Research at the Turkish Foreign Ministry
who formerly studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, they said.
Last week, al-Monitor cited sources as saying that
Ulutas, a non-career diplomat, is “very polished,” “very clever” and “very
pro-Palestinian”.
According to the report, the move aimed to improve
Ankara’s relationship with the US.
The Times of Israeli on Sunday said it was not
immediately clear if Israel was set to return its ambassador to Turkey.
Turkey recalled its ambassadors to Tel Aviv following
the killing of dozens of Palestinian protesters by Israeli forces, and the
inauguration of the US embassy in Jerusalem al-Quds in May 2018.
Ankara also expelled Israel’s ambassador, Eitan Na’eh,
and consul in Istanbul.
Israeli-Turkish ties have remained frosty despite the
2016 normalization deal.
In June 2016, Israel and Turkey reached an agreement
on the normalization of their relations six years after an Israeli raid on a
Gaza-bound Turkish aid flotilla killed 10 Turkish activists in high seas and
sent their ties spiraling into a cycle of tensions in May 2010.
Ankara initially reacted with fury. It suspended its
military ties with Israel and expelled the Israeli envoy from Ankara in
September 2010 over Tel Aviv’s refusal to apologize for the killings.
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently
condemned Israel’s normalization deals with Persian Gulf Arab states.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/14/640697/Turkey-send-ambassador-Israel-
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UAE, Bahrain envoys to US celebrate Jewish holiday
13 December 2020
The Emirati and Bahraini envoys to the United States
have joined a virtual event, hosted by the Israeli embassy in Washington,
commemorating the third day of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.
Yousef al-Otaiba and Shaikh Abdulla bin Rashid bin
Abdulla Al Khalifa, the ambassadors of the UAE and Bahrain to the US,
participated at the candle-lighting ceremony on Saturday.
It came almost three months after Abu Dhabi and Manama
signed normalization pacts with the occupying Israeli regime during an official
ceremony hosted by US President Donald Trump at the White House.
“This year, I’m lighting the Hanukkah candles with you
at the same time the Jewish community in the UAE are lighting their Hanukkah
candles. Now that is peace,” Otaiba said. “Next year, let us hope we can
celebrate this holiday together in person.”
“This year may look and feel a little different, as
the COVID pandemic continues to impact our daily lives. But I’m still filled
with hope. Hope that in 2021, will bring a brand new start for us,” he added.
The Bahraini ambassador said, “In a time of hardship
for us all, it was that flame of desire, that desire for peace, that
prevailed.”
“This year, may the hope for peace that exists in each
of us burn brightly enough to illuminate the desire in others. As on the
menorah, let our one candle be surrounded by others, radiating the light of
hope on whatever shadows are cast by those wishing to perpetuate darkness and
fear,” he noted.
Israel’s ambassador Ron Dermer said both envoys
“played a critical role in forging that historic breakthrough,” referring to
the normalization deals.
"It was the year of the pandemic, but it was also
the year of peace," he claimed.
Dermer also spoke to Moroccan Ambassador to Washington
Princess Lalla Joumala Alaoui, agreeing to meet her soon to examine ways to
promote Tel Aviv-Rabat ties.
On Thursday, Morocco became the fourth Arab state this
year, after the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan, to announce it had agreed to forge
formal diplomatic relations with Israel.
Palestinians have condemned the normalization
agreements as a treacherous "stab in the back" in their struggle
against the Israeli occupation.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/13/640620/UAE-Bahrain-Israel-Hanukkah
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North America
Biden's incoming national security aide condemns
Iran’s execution of journalist
Yaghoub Fazeli
14 December 2020
Iran’s execution of dissident journalist Ruhollah Zam
is a “horrifying human rights violation,” US President-elect Joe Biden's
incoming national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a tweet on Sunday.
Zam’s execution has drawn international condemnation,
including from rights groups and the European Union.
“Iran’s execution of Ruhollah Zam, a journalist who
was denied due process and sentenced for exercising his universal rights, is another
horrifying human rights violation by the Iranian regime,” Sullivan said.
“We will join our partners in calling out and standing
up to Iran’s abuses,” he added in the same tweet.
Also on Sunday, a Tehran-based business forum that
aimed to promote trade between Europe and the Islamic Republic was postponed a
day before it was set to start after several European envoys to Iran who were
slated to speak at the forum announced their withdrawal over Zam’s execution.
In addition to European envoys, Iran’s Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the European Union’s foreign policy chief
Josep Borrell were also set to speak at the forum.
Zam, who Iran convicted of inciting violence during
anti-government protests in late 2017, was executed on Saturday, state media
reported. He ran Amadnews, a channel on popular messaging app Telegram which
had over a million followers.
Iranian agents reportedly captured Zam during a visit
to Iraq in 2019. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said at the
time they had “trapped” Zam in a “complex operation using intelligence
deception.”
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2020/12/14/Biden-s-incoming-national-security-aide-condemns-Iran-s-execution-of-journalist
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US officially removes Sudan from State Sponsor of
Terror list: Embassy
14 December 2020
The US has officially removed Sudan from its State
Sponsor of Terror list, said the US Embassy in Khartoum on Monday.
"The congressional notification period of 45 days
has lapsed and the Secretary of State has signed a notification stating
rescission of Sudan's State Sponsor of Terrorism designation is effective as of
today (December 14), to be published in the Federal Register," the embassy
posted on Facebook.
Sudan has been placed on the US terror list in 1993.
Posted by U.S. Embassy Khartoum on Sunday, December
13, 2020
Outgoing US President Donald Trump had announced in
October that he would take Sudan off the list, which also includes North Korea,
Iran, and Syria.
Sudan's new civilian-led government had advocated for
the step following its rise to power after the fall of former President Omar
al-Bashir and his military regime.
As part of a deal, Sudan agreed to $335 million to
compensate survivors and victims’ families from the twin 1998 attacks on US
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, carried out when al-Bashir was welcoming
al-Qaeda, and a 2000 attack on the USS Cole off Yemen’s coast.
According to the October announcement, once the
compensation money was deposited, Trump was to sign an order removing Sudan
from the terrorism list on which it has languished under heavy American
sanctions for 27 years.
Sudan’s transitional government, which took over last
year following Bashir’s overthrow, has also agreed to recognize Israel, a major
goal for Trump, although Khartoum has sought to downplay the connection.
Sudan became the third Arab state - after the United
Arab Emirates and Bahrain - to move to normalize relations with Israel this
year. After Sudan, Morocco also established diplomatic ties with Israel.
https://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2020/12/14/US-signs-to-officially-remove-Sudan-from-State-Sponsor-of-Terror-list
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Israeli diplomat warns Biden against resuming UNRWA
funding
13 December 2020
A former Israeli regime ambassador to the United
Nations has reportedly warned the incoming administration of US President-elect
Joe Biden against funding the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees
(UNRWA).
Ron Prosor, veteran Israeli diplomat who served as Tel
Aviv regime’s envoy to the UN until 2015 and to the UK prior to that, further
called on Biden not to re-join two other UN agencies, namely the Human Rights
Council (UNHRC) and UNESCO, arguing that US presence in such bodies even in
dissent grants greater legitimacy to “science fiction” opinions critical of
Israel, the UK-based Middle East Monitor (MEMO) reported Friday.
Prosor, who now heads the Tel Aviv-based Abba Eban
Institute for International Diplomacy, made the remarks during a discussion
with the American Jewish Committee (AJC) -- a major pro-Israel lobby group
based in New York – in which he accused the UNRWA of prolonging what he
referred to as Palestine-Israel conflict.
The veteran Israeli diplomat directly warned Biden not
to go near UNRWA, insisting that the relief agency perpetuates the conflict by
honoring Palestinian refugee status for generations, blatantly claiming that
this sort of approach amounts to an “incitement” against the Israeli regime.
“The bottom line for the United States of America– the
minute you are in something, let’s say the Council on Human Rights, which I
call the Council on Human Wrongs… the minute you are there, the decisions that
they make, by the fact you are there, you are legitimizing those decisions,” he
claimed.
“So I think this is an important point for the US to
make, in saying we cannot influence a decision, we cannot leverage anything in
the Council on Human Rights or UNESCO, it’s better for us not to be there to
give it legitimacy,” the Israeli diplomat then underlined.
Prosor further boasted that American Jews “put their
shoulder to the wheel on the [1947] UN partition resolution” that forced the
establishment of the Israeli regime, adding that we need to keep strengthening
“the bond between Israel and the Jewish people.”
The outgoing US President Donald Trump cut funding to
UNRWA and withdrew from membership of the two other UN bodies – citing their
“bias against Israel” as part of his anti-Palestinian policy of promoting the
interests of the apartheid regime occupying Palestine.
However, Biden has pledged to resume US membership in
the UNHRC and re-join other international bodies that Trump had abandoned. He
also suggested that donations will resume for UNRWA, the report added.
According to the report, a number of US analysts have
stated that the powerful pro-Israeli lobby group has already begun engaging
with Biden's transition team in efforts to safeguard the anti-Palestinian
interests of the Israeli regime.
“It is clear from Prosor's statements what the
priorities of the lobbyists are going to be when Biden is in the White House,”
it added.
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/12/13/640602/US-President-elect-Joe-Biden-Israeli-diplomat-UNRWA-Palestine
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US confirms strike on Taliban in Afghanistan's Zhari
Michael Hernandez
11.12.2020
WASHINGTON
The US military confirmed Friday carrying out an
airstrike against Taliban militants it said were in the process of attacking an
Afghan government checkpoint in Zhari district.
The strike took place on Thursday, Col. Sonny Leggett,
the spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, said, maintaining it is in line
with an agreement the US struck with the Taliban to draw down hostilities.
"The Taliban's claim of civilian casualties are
false," Leggett said on Twitter.
The Afghan Defense Ministry said the US strike
resulted in the deaths of 38 Taliban fighters, and wounded an addition dozen.
"Additionally, 30 IEDs were discovered and
defused by Afghan National Army, 205 Atalanta Corps during reciprocal
attacks," the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.
The strike came the same day as the UN General
Assembly adopted 130-1 an annual resolution on the situation in Afghanistan.
With the resolution the assembly "pledged its
continued support to the country’s Government and people as they rebuild a
stable, secure and economically self-sufficient State," according to the
UN.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/americas/us-confirms-strike-on-taliban-in-afghanistans-zhari/2074161
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