by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud
Normalization will eventually take place within framework of Palestinian-Israeli peace plan, says Saudi foreign minister
Saudi foreign minister said normalization with Israel will eventually take place within the framework of a Palestinian-Israeli peace plan.
In an online interview with the Washington Institute for Near East Studies, which was broadcast late Thursday on its website, Faisal bin Farhan said normalization with Israel was included in the Saudi peace plan proposal in 1981.
Expressing his country’s commitment to peace, he said it is “a strategic necessity for the region”, adding that “normalization with Israel in the end is part of that.”
“Therefore, we always imagine that normalization will take place, but we also have to obtain a Palestinian state and a Palestinian-Israeli peace plan,” bin Farhan said.
The minister also stressed the necessity to bring Palestinians and Israelis to the negotiation table.
“The only thing that can lead to lasting peace and stability is an agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and if we do not succeed in achieving this, then the wound will remain open in the region,” he said.
The Saudi minister’s talk about Arab normalization with Israel comes one month after the UAE and Bahrain signed two US-brokered agreements for normalization with Israel in Washington, despite the widespread rejection and condemnation on the Palestinian side.
Since April 2014, peace negotiations have stalled due to Tel Aviv’s refusal to stop building settlements, release old Palestinian detainees and its disavowal of the two-state solution based on the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The Saudi minister also touched on the Gulf crisis, saying: “We continue to work with our Qatari brothers, and we hope that they are committed to working with us to solve the Gulf crisis … We hope that we can find a way forward to address the legitimate security concerns.”
Bin Farhan, however, gave no date by which the crisis is expected to be resolved.
The Gulf crisis has been ongoing since June 5, 2017 when Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a land, air and sea blockade on Qatar, citing its support for terrorism and its relationship with Iran, which Doha has repeatedly denied and considered the four countries’ move as an attempt to undermine its sovereignty and independence.
Doha stresses that it is necessary to solve the Gulf crisis through dialogue without any preconditions, which is what Kuwait and the Oman are trying to make mediation efforts successful.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
By Haider Abbas
There seem to be more and more trouble brewing in the Middle-East, apart from the spread of COVID-19 pandemic , as the latest bombshell to come is from Qatar defense minister Khalid Al Attiyah who has claimed that Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) with UAE and Bahrain, the last two have just embraced Israel to start with their full-diplomatic relations on August 14, 2020 and September 10, 2020, after Beirut blasts of August 4, 2020, were planning to ‘occupy’ Qatar in a two-phased plan! According to a report published in Middle East Eye.
‘There was a premeditated intention for an invasion, not just a siege. This plan was set into two phases, imposing the siege with the aim of creating an overall state of panic, which would have a direct impact on the Qatari street, then executing a military invasion,” the minister said. They wanted to implement the siege phase fully then to invade, things were clear to us all the intelligence we had and all the available evidence undoubtedly confirmed the theory of an existing plan. Since 2017, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UAE have imposed a blockade on Qatar. The Saudi-led coalition said it launched the blockade against Doha in a bid to stem Qatar’s alleged support of terrorism in the region – a charge that Qatar has denied. The designs hadn’t been new as in 2017 former US defense secretary of state Rex Tillerson is said to have prevented Qatar invasion by KSA forces is support with military aid from UAE reported Al Jazeera .
Qatar had already been reeling under economic blockade by KSA, since 2017, with its business, air-traffic, economy, food and supplies compromised, which was a ploy to trigger massive public unrest against its royal-family, and then later to pounce militarily on it, was the KSA double-edged plan, but all that could not happen. KSA standard alibi was that Qatar is friend with Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood, according to Times of Israel and therefore ought to change its policies, or else stringent measures were coming, which was to annex Qatar and who knows, as Arab states were soon to open-up-gates for Israel, an Israeli military base in UAE and a KSA-UAE-Bahrain-Israel invasion of Qatar was to be the understood fait accompli! But, be sure that the plan hasn’t been shelved.
Qatar is battling the KSA embargo and now all imports from Turkey have also been banned by KSA, as reported by English.Alaraby.Co,UK and ironically both are under the wrath of KSA, but Turkey, which is raring to reclaim its Ottoman Caliphate, after about 100 years, considers Qatar to be its original vicegerent, since the Ottoman empire/Caliphate was abrogated by the Britishers after the first-world-war, and quite understandably, when Turkey Lira was in a downslide it was Qatar which came to rescue with 15 billion USD amidst the US standoff as was reported by CNBC on August 15, 2018 and after the outbreak of COVID-19 Qatar has again bailed-out Turkey with 15 billion USD more investments, reported Bloomberg . Qatar has very strong relations with Iran, Russia and with US as well. One of the biggest US military base is in Al Udeid, Qatar which served as a launch pad for US drones and bombers to hit in Afghanistan, but slowly Qatar started to change-its-policies and provided for venue for the Afghan-Taliban and US & Afghanistan government for the dialogues in Doha, which ultimately laid way for US to finally move out of Afghanistan after its 19 years disastrous war. Qatar’s news channel Al Jazeera just cannot be credited less, for its role, has been that of a fulcrum to iron-out-things between the contestants in Afghanistan. No wonder, Qatar is also an ardent votary of its reclaim to its parent Ottoman empire, which may be the prime reason, that compelled KSA, UAE and Bahrain to make a final bid over Qatar, as all the Arab states were cut out of the Turkish Ottoman empire along with Israel which was a part of Turkish Palestine.
With the fast pace changing world scenario, any KSA move (with an understood Israel support), which has now been blown, would invite Russian interference in Qatar in alignment with Iran & China as China and KSA relations have also been dipped. US has also now officially supported India over its conflict with China on the question of Arunachal Pradesh, which has made Israel and KSA also aligned with India, while China is now trying to engage more effectively with Turkey and Qatar and seek to import its oil and gas from Qatar. KSA has slid to third position in terms of its oil imports to China which has very hardly stuck KSA economy. China has now decided to likely include Qatar in its Belt and Road Initiative, came the report from The Penninsula Qatar .
Qatar did get its its biggest impetus when it got the status to host the football FIFA world-cup-2022, which KSA wanted to be stripped, reported Times of Israel and wanted England or US to host it instead, but now KSA’s own economy is in doldrums and its ‘Vision 2030’ is far to be seen as a success, but instead Qatar has smartly launched many lucrative steps, like its easiest Visa rules which is available in exchange of a few dollars, and its airlines has become the number one airlines in the world, informed WorldAirlineAwards.com for the fifth year in a row. Qatar also knows it very soon that oil is also to exhaust and hence has switched to organising gala events like World Cup to bolster its tourism industry. The news, of KSA invasion, might have to an extent stopped KSA steps, but for sure KSA annexation-plan of Qatar and Israel annexation-plan of West Bank in Palestine stems from the same expansionist agenda and will therefore remain on table!
The writer is a former State Information Commissioner. He is a media analyst and writes on international politics.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
The countries of the Middle East, like the United Arab Emirates are grappling with a slowdown of economy thanks to the low oil prices and impact of pandemic, resulting in a significantly big number of expats losing their jobs that may potentially change the demography of the region. (Image Courtesy: Middle East Eye)
By Soroor Ahmed | Patna
As per the definition of State given in Political Science textbooks for high school it should be sovereign, have a government, territory or land and population. By that criterion several of the countries are inherently weak States as they are too small in size or too sparsely populated. Yet they are counted as independent countries and are the honourable members of the United Nations.
But in the post-Corona world a new type of development has taken place. There is a fear that many tiny countries may in the near future actually lose the status of the State and may end up being called just outposts. A handful of such States are situated in the Middle East. This is simply because of massive process of de-population they are undergoing. As these tiny States–just a dot on the map of the world–have witnessed a huge cut in jobs and return of expatriates–thanks to crash in oil price and slump in its demand–they have lost almost all the attraction of being called a State.
As in the name of the government they always used to have a titular head and their sovereignty would always be in doubt. Thus they had been inherently weak since their establishment.
The United Arab Emirates is one of them. Following its decision to establish diplomatic ties with Israel, the US President Donald Trump, after a series of foreign policy disasters, proclaimed from the house-top that he had brokered a deal between Israel and UAE and tried to project it as if it was a great achievement.
He perhaps failed to appreciate the fact that brokering a deal between such a failed State and Israel is–in this era of rapid Chinese expansion and rising influence of Turkey and Iran–would lead to nowhere.
But this gentleman at least has nothing to boast about on the foreign policy front. One day he would abuse North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and call for the destruction of that country, but on the other day he meets the same person in such a way as if he had found a long lost brother. Then a day later he would forget if any country with such a name ever exists.
With election around the corner he had at least something to brandish. The Israeli government thinks that with UAE becoming a friend the Jewish state would get a base in the Gulf to checkmate Iran. But this effort has been going on since 1979 Iranian Revolution, especially after First Gulf War in 1991 which paved the way for the virtual control of Kuwait by the US-led NATO forces.
After all the forward headquarters of the US Central Command is situated in Qatar. Israel had developed a very good relationship with another Shia-dominated, but anti-Iran neighbouring country, Azerbaijan. An air base was developed here so that Israelis could attack Iran, particularly its nuclear facilities. Did all these steps really succeed in containing Iran?
In contrast Iran has in recent years managed to come out of isolation and even President Obama had to sign a deal with it. It is other thing that President Trump cancelled it, and re-imposed sanctions. But he failed to get the support of European Union. Only on August 20 the United Kingdom, France and Germany said that they would oppose the US motion at the United Nations to re-impose sanctions on Iran.
Iran, and for that matter Turkey, might be suffering economic losses because of the US actions, but there is no denying the fact that the influence of these two Muslim countries have increased in the region. This is so in spite of the fact that many people in the Muslim world have strong reservations with some of their policies and stands.
In contrast the stature of Israel has largely been neutralised and the Gulf countries have lost whatever clout they used to enjoy in the past. The huge fall in the oil price has deprived them of whatever attraction they used to have.
The truth is that barring Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Oman, the other tiny Sheikhdoms were carved out and declared independent by the colonial masters with a purpose. The plan was to use them as military bases, a task which they have been performing. Establishing diplomatic ties with Israel is immaterial.
However, the diminishing status of these so-called States has made policy-makers in Washington sit up and ponder. Even the much bigger, but once again thinly populated, Saudi Arabia, especially under Mohammad bin Salman has isolated itself from the Muslim world. Its crime in Yemen, and the role in the two Gulf Wars have not been forgotten.
The truth is that ever since the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Turks and their embrace of the British and French armies at the high time of World War-I, the role of the leaders of peninsular Arabs have never been appreciated in the Muslim world.
Notwithstanding the fact that Makkah and Madinah being situated in Hejaz there is a general feeling that the third holiest shrine of Islam Al-Aqsa today is in the hands of Israel largely because of the great betrayal of Arabs against fellow Muslim, that is Ottoman Turks.
Israel is the creation of the same colonial powers which hewed out so many small states in the region and installed monarchs of their choice on them.
So except during the 1973 Arab-Israel War and immediately after, Saudi Arabia never enjoyed the role of leadership of the Muslim world.
So if Riyadh follows UAE in establishing diplomatic ties with Israel it would not be a big surprise, or a huge achievement.
(Soroor Ahmed is a senior journalist based in Patna. The views are personal.)
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
A team led by Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh met Thursday with Qatar’s Foreign Minister Muhammad bin Abdurrahman al-Thani in Doha to discuss the latest developments in Palestine.
The team, including senior Hamas officials Musa Abu Marzuq, Izzat al-Rashak and Maher Obeid, spoke with al-Thani about Israel’s annexation plan, Jewish settlements and the Judaization of Jerusalem.
The team praised Qatar for supporting the Palestinian people.
Al-Thani said his country will continue this approach and support all efforts to ensure national unity in Palestine.
The Fatah and Hamas movements decided to object to Israel’s annexation plan and the so-called “Deal of the Century.”
Hamas and Fatah have remained at odds since the former seized control of the Gaza Strip in mid-2007 after several days of street fighting.
Israel’s new government is expected to present its strategy this month for implementing the “Deal of the Century” proposed by US President Donald Trump.
The plan gives Israel a free hand to annex large parts of the West Bank, including the Jordan Valley, which Israel occupied in 1967.
The West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is viewed as occupied territory under international law, making all Jewish settlements there as well as the planned annexation illegal.
Palestinian officials have threatened to abolish bilateral agreements with Israel if it goes ahead with annexation, which would further undermine a two-state solution.
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Muslim World, Technology
Jerusalem : Aiming to become the fourth country to make a soft landing on the Moon, Israel’s non-profit SpaceIL has announced it will launch a spacecraft from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on Thursday on board a Falcon 9 rocket.
The unmanned craft, weighing 1,300 pounds and standing approximately five feet tall, will then begin an about seven-week journey to the Moon, from where it will send back images of the rocky surface and conduct experiments on the lunar magnetic field.
The spacecraft is called “Beresheet,” a reference to the first words of the Bible in Hebrew: “In the beginning…”
For decades, the Moon was the exclusive domain of the superpowers. The Soviet Union landed Luna 2 on the Earth’s nearest neighbour in 1959. Three years later, the US landed Ranger 4 on the Moon.
These were “hard landings,” meaning the craft crashed into the Moon. The first “soft landings” for both countries came in 1966, when spacecraft made controlled descents to the lunar surface.
It would take nearly another 50 years for a third country to perform a soft Moon landing, when China’s Chang’e 3 did it in 2013.
If Israel’s spacecraft venture proceeds as planned, it would become the fourth — and by far the smallest — country to do so. It would also become the first private enterprise to make a controlled landing on the Moon, with the smallest spacecraft to do it, and by far the least expensive mission.
The total cost of the programme, raised from private donations, is $100 million, a small fraction of the billions of dollars invested in the US space program.
“This mission that we were talking about was really a mission impossible,” said entrepreneur Morris Kahn, who donated $40 million to the project.
“The only thing is I didn’t realize it was impossible, and the three engineers that started this project didn’t think it was impossible, and the way Israel thinks, nothing is impossible… We are really making this dream come true,” Kahn added.
SpaceIL was founded eight years ago to compete in the Google Lunar X Prize, an international competition to see whether a private enterprise could land a spacecraft on the moon, move 500 meters in any direction, and transmit live, high-definition video from the lunar surface.
The competition was canceled in January 2018 when none of the five teams left in the competition was able to meet the March deadline for a launch.
But some of the teams persisted, determined to land on the Moon even without the incentive of $30 million in prize money.
SpaceIL pressed on, signing with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to launch their craft to the Moon on board a Falcon 9 rocket, which is scheduled for launch on February 21.
Beresheet will travel approximately 4 million miles on its journey, circling the earth multiple times to gain speed before it slingshots towards the moon. It is scheduled to land on April 11.
—IANS
