Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said Sunday that his government had evidence Iran was responsible for a drone attack Thursday night on an Israeli-operated oil tanker, the Mercer Street, off the coast of Oman that killed two people.
Four missiles fired by Israeli warplanes in Syria’s Homs province early on Thursday were shot down by the Syrian army using Russian-made “Buk” air defence systems, RT has reported. According to the report, two Israeli F-16 jets fired the guided missiles from Lebanese airspace.
Let’s stop all the hand wringing and angst over Afghanistan. Now. It’s fooling no one. America, Britain and their NATO allies have had 20 years to help put the country back on its feet, deliver human rights, female equality and a democratic government free of corruption. They’ve failed.
Despite the return of major charities back in 2002 and billions of dollars later, women’s rights have barely improved beyond Kabul. The capital is the seat of arguably the most corrupt government in the world unable to progress because greedy politicians are more concerned about lining their own pockets than good governance and development.
Little wonder then that the Taliban is making huge inroads to regain control across the country, and at such a rapid pace that it is leaving many military strategists breathless. In some provinces, it is being welcomed back and meeting no resistance. The movement now controls more than half of Afghanistan.
Of course this leaves Western governments and their compliant media in an awkward position after 20 years of demonising the Taliban. We were told daily after the horrific events of 9/11 that it ran the most brutal, ruthless regime in the world. But there was no Taliban involvement in 9/11. That was a narrative pushed out by the then US President George W Bush and his willing sidekick, British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
They talked about girls’ schools being closed and children banned from flying kites. As is often the case in such scare stories there was a grain of truth in their words. However, if journalists had investigated further they would have discovered that schools were abandoned and closed for everyone because there was no money, part of the country was in the grip of famine and all of it was suffering from the after-effects of a devastating civil war.
Kite flying was indeed banned in major towns and cities, because the razor-thin wires were slicing into and through overhead power cables, killing the unfortunate kite flyer and leaving major areas without electricity. Imagine trying to fly a kite in London’s Oxford Street and you can see why such a practice was stopped.
When I went back to Afghanistan in February 2002, the year after my capture by the Taliban much was made by the media that Kabul University was re-opening its gates after the movement’s fall and that girls would be able to return to school. Many believed that the war was all but over and the future looked bright. Indeed it did, but when I asked at a press conference how more girls than boys had passed the entrance exam if girls weren’t educated under the Taliban, there was a stony silence.
Instead of a response, I was undermined, sidelined and silenced; written off as a victim of Stockholm syndrome simply because I’d survived a terrifying ordeal when I’d been captured and held by the Taliban for ten days in the previous September. Far from being compliant or bonding with my captors, however, I was the prisoner from hell. In fact, I’m not sure who was happiest to see me return safely to Britain, the Taliban, or me.
“She is a very bad woman with a very bad mouth,” said Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef during a press conference announcing my release from captivity. I did not like the Taliban and they certainly did not like me. However, as a journalist, I’ve always felt it my duty to deliver the truth and the truth is that my jailers treated me with kindness and respect that I had not expected. Furthermore, I could see that they loved their country and would never give up the struggle to take it back from the US-led invaders.
Like it or loathe it, the Taliban has neither wavered from its goals nor pursued any hidden agenda. We in the West might not like its way of thinking, ideology, or beliefs, and would baulk at the very idea of introducing Taliban ways into our countries, and with good reason. But why on earth should we expect the movement and its supporters to adopt and embrace our cultures, habits and beliefs which they find equally unpalatable?
As I write this, the US — which was supposed to have withdrawn its forces from Afghanistan earlier this month — is bombing Taliban positions. Enough is enough. The time has come for the West to take a giant step back and stop interfering in Afghanistan other than to provide no-strings humanitarian aid and support to make up for 20 years of devastation. If the Afghan people want to get rid of the government imposed on them by the US, then that’s their business, not ours.
Yes, people are still dying in this conflict, as they have been for the past 20 years. It’s only now, though, that the number of civilian casualties reported in the Western media are deemed to be important. When I left Afghanistan after being released by the Taliban in October 2001 the war had already begun. During the journey from Kabul to the Pakistan border, I saw what looked like strong evidence that civilian areas had been bombed by the US-led coalition, including hospitals. Nobody was interested in the number of Afghan civilian casualties back then.
I often refer in my columns to the hypocrisy and double standards deployed by the West and some of my colleagues in the media. Never has it been more blatant than in their coverage of Western interference in Afghanistan.
Like it or not the Taliban is coming back to power. I know from my own contacts within the movement that the preferred option is a diplomatic settlement, but there’s little trust between the leadership and the government of President Ashraf Ghani. The truth is that he could have reached a peaceful settlement with the Taliban months ago, but he always thought that the US would be there to back him, so it wasn’t necessary to do so.
He clearly hasn’t been paying attention. The list of dictators and leaders who’ve been installed by the West over the years is long, as is the list of those who have been betrayed by their fickle friends in Washington and Europe. Presidents Saddam Hussein (Iraq, 1979-2003) Colonel Muammar Gaddafi (Libya, 1969-2011) and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali (Tunisia, 1987-2011) are three who spring to mind. All were at one time supported by the West. They would confirm what I say if they had lived to tell the tale.
Ghani would be wise to cut a deal with the Taliban in the next few days before it is too late. He can no longer rely on his own Afghan security forces who he expects to fight without pay, such as the extent of the corruption in his government. The US set aside billions of dollars to prop up the Afghan military but the money has never reached the soldiers on the ground. Little wonder, then, that the troops have lost momentum in recent weeks, with some fleeing for their lives and others joining the Taliban. Fighting for your country is one thing, but putting your life on the line to keep the people who are pocketing your hard-earned wages in power is something else.
Afghanistan is a classic example of what happens when Western intervention goes wrong. Nevertheless, instead of sitting back and agreeing, it is time for other foreign players to step into the breach for the sake of the Afghan people. Qatar has played a crucial and positive role. In February last year, the US and the Taliban were in the capital Doha when they signed the Agreement for Bringing Peace to Afghanistan. Another equally trusted Muslim regional power is Turkey, which has already prevented the massacre of civilians in war-torn Libya and Syria.
Turkey is taking over security at Kabul International Airport after the withdrawal of US troops. Observers say that this is key to maintaining stability. Importantly for the Taliban, positive help from Muslim countries towards a political solution to end the war would be welcome. Istanbul may well host an Afghan peace conference in the coming months.
If so, it could set a precedent for other troubled Muslim lands, including Libya, Syria, and Yemen, for example. Or even Western Sahara, Morocco, and Algeria. At the very least, though, the West should keep out. Its track record is appalling, and it needs to learn from history. Afghanistan is not known as the “graveyard of empires” for nothing.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz told the German paper Bild on July 25 that those fleeing Afghanistan should go to “neighboring” countries such as Turkey, rather than European Union countries, to seek asylum. It’s a shameful statement because of trying to humiliate refugees and Turkey that he puts into a position of a refugee gatekeeper. He wants to gain election points by Turkey-bashing, using the excuse of Afghan refugees. By making such remarks Kurz may earn the appreciation of the far-right or racist parties in some other European Union Countries, perhaps hoping that he could become the natural leader of the far-right in Europe. way, it’s shameful, because of trying to humiliate refugees and Turkey.
Just as He made Islam the most perfect of messages, Allah made Muhammad (pbuh) the most perfect of men, a light destined to influence generations of Muslims through the ages. His example is such that it covers every aspect of a man’s life.
Muhammad is the last of the prophets: The Seal of the Prophets and God’s messenger to humanity along with the last of the monotheistic religions, Islam. His greatest miracle is the Qur’ran, the holy book of the Muslim religion. (1) And it is from the Prophet’s deeds and words (pbuh) that Muslims hold the Sunnah Nabawiyah and try to emulate his actions and thoughts.
Despite its defiant stance toward the US and the West in general, the Iranian regime cares about how it is perceived outside its borders. Therefore, through its lobbying and friendly media outlets, it works hard on the image projected to international audiences. It also targets a specific line of thought that can mobilize pressure on the political leaders in Washington or Brussels. This image is key for the mullahs.
The 57 migrants who drowned off the coast of Libya on Sunday added to the toll of nearly 1,000 lives lost in the Mediterranean Sea this year alone, the UN agency International Organisation for Migration (IOM) has revealed.
In addition to the 57 who drowned on Sunday when their boat sank, there are at least 20 women and two toddlers missing from the sinking, while 18 were rescued, according to the IOM.
The United Nations children’s agency said on Friday that more than 100,000 children in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray could suffer life-threatening malnutrition in the next 12 months, a 10-fold increase to normal numbers.
UNICEF spokesperson Marixie Mercado said that one-in-two pregnant and breastfeeding women screened in Tigray were acutely malnourished.
En 2011, la Tunisie est devenue le berceau du bouleversement connu sous le nom de Printemps arabe – une série de protestations et de soulèvements en faveur de la démocratie qui se sont répandus comme une traînée de poudre dans une grande partie du monde arabe et ont fait tomber les régimes de la région en l’espace de plusieurs mois.
When Osama Bin Laden and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed orchestrated the al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on the United States homeland on 9/11, it was a watershed moment for the global jihadist movement. The attacks catapulted al-Qaeda to the forefront of the West’s security agenda, monopolizing Western security policy for the better part of the past two decades, with global reverberations. Ever since, al-Qaeda and the jihadist movement have transformed in several important ways, not least in response to the emergence of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS). Bin Laden’s original objective was to establish a vanguard movement that would lead the struggle against apostate regimes across the Islamic world and instigate local insurrections and insurgencies. Yet, since then, the global jihadist movement’s success appears to have exceeded Bin Laden’s greatest ambitions, with the proliferation of affiliate groups in numerous countries and the mobilization of thousands of fighters from around the world, including the West. In particular, the rise of the Islamic State succeeded in transforming the jihadi movement into a popular protest movement, attracting people who would otherwise have little connection with Islamist extremism or militancy. Continuing the efforts of al-Qaeda, the Islamic State essentially turned jihadism into the primary ideology of rebellion.