Month: April 2021

Spanish Public Opinion On Immigration And The Effect Of VOX – Analysis

Spanish public opinion on immigration is growing increasingly polarized.

This analysis examines Spanish public opinion on immigration in recent years based on a number of surveys, the most recent from 2020. There has been a slight increase in negative attitudes towards immigration, although it is not clear to what extent this shift can be attributed to the institutional presence of VOX, or else to events like the COVID-19 pandemic and irregular immigration to the Canary Islands. However, the impact of the emergence of VOX as a political force is noticeable in terms of increasing ideological polarisation in Spain, a situation that hinders rational debate on immigration and how to manage it.

India: Islamist Terrorism Under Check – Analysis

Islamist terrorist formations – global, transnational and Pakistan-based – despite relentless efforts over decades to create turmoil in India’s hinterland, have failed to gain any noticeable traction. In fact, the last major attack (resulting in three or more fatalities) by Islamist terrorists, outside Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), was recorded on January 2, 2016, when 14 persons, including the six attackers, died in an attack on the Pathankot Airbase in Punjab. No major attack has been recorded outside J&K since then (data till April 18, 2021).

A Czech Explosion, Russian Agents, A Bulgarian Arms Dealer: The Recipe For A Major Spy Scandal In Central Europe – Analysis

The explosion was massive, blowing out windows of houses kilometers away, leaving a smoldering crater in the eastern Czech forest, not far from the border with Slovakia.

The blast, on October 16, 2014, destroyed a cache of ammunition and related weaponry. The bodies of two men who worked at the site were recovered nearly a month later. A second explosion occurred about two months later at nearby location, about 1 kilometer away.

What Will Iraq’s Sadr Do To Get Washington’s Backing?- Analysis

Informed Iraqi sources said that the Sadrist movement has begun to prepare for the upcoming Iraqi elections and that it will present itself to the US as a “moderate” movement and the best option in the Iraqi Shia community.

The sources told The Arab Weekly that the Shia political spectrum is now divided between the pro-Iranian Popular Mobilisation Forces, accused by the US of responsibility for attacks targeting its forces in Iraq; the Dawa Party, which is internally splintered and the remnants of smaller formations, such as the Al-Hikma groups.

Russia Holds The Key To India’s Eurasian Policy – Analysis

A recent op-ed piece in the Washington Post (13 March 2021), written jointly by the Quad leaders, President Joe Biden of the US, Prime Ministers Narendra Modi, Scott Morrison and Yashihide Suga of India, Australia and Japan respectively, morphs the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QSD or the Quad) to a “Quad Framework” hailed by Modi as a “force for global good”.

Libya welcomes UN decision to deploy cease-fire monitors

Libya’s transitional government on Saturday welcomed a U.N. Security Council decision to deploy international monitors to watch over a nearly six-month-old cease-fire in the conflict-stricken country.

The Government of National Unity also urged the council to help get mercenaries out of the oil-rich country, as it heads toward December elections after a decade of fighting and upheaval.

The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ recent proposal for up to 60 monitors to join an existing political mission in Libya.

The monitors would arrive in an “incremental deployment … once conditions allow,” according to the council’s British-drafted resolution. The council also urges all foreign forces and mercenaries to get out of the country, as was supposed to happen months ago.

The vote, announced on Friday, was conducted by email, due to the coronavirus pandemic; the results were announced at a brief virtual meeting.

The interim government, which took power last month, expressed its willingness to facilitate the work of the U.N. monitors.

It also said it would would provide “all financial and logistic” capabilities to the country’s elections authority to hold a “fair and transparent” vote on Dec. 24.

Libya has been plagued by corruption and turmoil since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. In recent years, the country was split between a U.N.-supported government in the capital, Tripoli, and rival authorities based in the country’s east.

Each side was backed by armed groups and foreign governments. The U.N. estimated in December there were at least 20,000 foreign fighters and mercenaries in Libya, including Syrians, Russians, Sudanese and Chadians.

In April 2019, east-based military commander Khalifa Hifter and his forces, backed by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, launched an offensive to try and capture Tripoli. His 14-month-long campaign collapsed after Turkey and Qatar stepped up their military support of the U.N.-backed government with hundreds of troops and thousands of Syrian mercenaries.

The cease-fire agreement, reached in October, called for the foreign fighters and mercenaries to leave within three months. No progress was made in that regard.

The cease-fire deal has dramatically reduced civilian casualties, but the U.N. has continued to document killings, forced disappearances, sexual violence, arbitrary arrests, hate crimes and attacks against activists and human rights defenders in Libya, U.N. special envoy Jan Kubis told the council last month.

Tunisia divers find another body from migrant boat; 22 dead

Navy divers recovered another body on Saturday from a migrant boat that floundered and sunk off the coast of eastern Tunisia, bringing to 22 the number of known dead, including nine women and a baby, as police searched for the smuggler.

An estimated 40 people were aboard the boat which sank Friday off the coast of Sfax in the Mediterranean Sea and the search for the missing continued, according to Ali Ayari, spokesman for the port city’s National Guard.

Also sought is a Tunisian said to have been the main smuggler and two others from sub-Saharan Africa, Ayari told The Associated Press. A Tunisian middleman has been arrested, he added.

“The boat took on water shortly after leaving the Sidi Monsour beach, near Sfax, which leads one to think the migrants were (victims) of a scam,” Ayari said.

The craft was allegedly headed to Italy, a main destination for migrants taking to the Mediterranean from this North African country and looking for a foothold in Europe to escape poverty or conflict.

On March 9, two boats ran aground in the same area, killing 39 people with 165 others rescued. Most people aboard were from sub-Saharan Africa.

New clashes in Mozambique three weeks after Palma attack

New clashes have erupted in the town of Palma, Mozambique, three weeks after a jihadist attack left dozens of people dead and forced thousands to flee their homes.

MAPUTO – New clashes have erupted in the town of Palma, Mozambique, three weeks after a jihadist attack left dozens of people dead and forced thousands to flee their homes, military and security sources said.

Heavy loss of life feared in clashes between Chad herders, farmers

Clashes between sedentary farmers and semi-nomadic herders in southeastern Chad have left many dead in recent days, humanitarian and human rights sources said Sunday.

The two groups have a long and troubled history in the region, where weapons abound and violence often flares after cattle destroy crops.