by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Benjamin Netanyahu
Jerusalem : Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday called on world leaders to follow the US and relocate their embassies to Jerusalem.
Speaking during a reception of a US diplomatic delegation in Jerusalem, Netanyahu thanked the US for the relocation, which will take place on Monday.
“There is no greater supporter of Israel on the earth,” he said. “We are eternally grateful.”
He called on other countries to follow the US move, saying that “in any peace that you could possibly imagine, Jerusalem will remain as Israel’s capital.”
He also thanked the leaders of Guatemala and Paraguay for their decisions to move their embassies to Jerusalem.
According to Netanyahu, other countries are expected to announce similar decisions soon. “We will not say whom because that is a state secret,” he said.
The delegation is led by US President Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka, his senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, reports Xinhua.
US Deputy Secretary of State John J. Sullivan said at the welcoming ceremony that Trump’s decision to relocate the embassy was “essential to creating a roadmap for peace in the region.”
A total of 86 foreign ambassadors in Israel were invited to the opening ceremony of the US embassy in Jerusalem on Monday, while 40 of them accepted the invitation.
Four European countries — Austria, Czech Republic, Romania, and Hungary — have confirmed their participation in the US move while the European Union opposes the relocation.
Thousands of police officers were deployed throughout Jerusalem over fear of Palestinian protests and riots.
Additionally, Police officers will stand in “human wall” between the neighbourhood of Arnona, where the new embassy is located, and the Palestinian Sur Baher.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Tehran : The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday denounced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nuclear allegations against Tehran as a “worthless show”.
Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said that the “ridiculous propagandist presentations” of Netanyahu are “one of the latest shameful and worthless shows about Iran’s nuclear programme”, reports Xinhua news agency.
Netanyahu on Monday disclosed files that he said could prove Iran has secretly worked on nuclear weapons even after it signed an agreement in 2015 to halt ts nuclear programme.
The Iranian nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, signed between Iran and six world powers, was designed to limit Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for the removal of international sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
“Even after the deal, Iran continued to preserve and expand its nuclear weapons know-how for future use” at the Fordow nuclear testing site, said Netanyahu.
However, Qasemi said the allegations were “merely aimed at spreading lies and deception”.
Netanyahu’s disclosure comes ahead of Trump’s May 12 deadline to decide whether to extend the waiver on nuclear-related sanctions against Iran.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to quit the deal.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
The Palestinian Authority (PA) spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina
Ramallah, Palestine: The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Tuesday reiterated refusal to accept any plans to establish a Palestinian state without Jerusalem as its capital.
“Any attempt to promote suspicious ideas from any side, and under any vague slogans and endless positions, will have no value or usefulness,” PA spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said in a statement cited by the official Wafa news agency.
“We say to those who try to circumvent the Arab peace initiative and resolutions of international legitimacy by proposing vague proposals or slogans that your attempts will be doomed to failure,” he said.
“No Palestinian or Arab will accept that,” the spokesman stressed.
“There will be no solution”, Abu Rudeina said, “without the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital on the 1967 borders and with a just solution to the refugee issue”.
The spokesman, however, did not disclose the reasons for issuing the statement.
An official source in the Palestinian Authority, however, told Anadolu Agency that some countries have suggested to the PA to accept American ideas for resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
“The ideas do not include East Jerusalem as a future capital,” the source said on condition of anonymity because he was unauthorized to speak to media.
The source acknowledged that the Palestinian areas “would be considerably less than a state”.
Jerusalem remains at the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict, with Palestinians hoping that East Jerusalem — now occupied by Israel — might eventually serve as the capital of a Palestinian state.
The holy city has captured world attention in December when U.S. President Donald Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, triggering world outcry and protests in the Palestinian territories.
—AA
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Ramallah, Palestine: Israel’s Jerusalem Municipality has approved a decision to build 5,700 illegal settlements, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) said on Saturday.
The new settlements will be able to accommodate 20,000 people, according to a report by the organization’s National Office of Defending Land and Tackling Settlement.
The settlement units will be built near Wadi Fukin, southwest of Bethlehem.
The report claims 1,450 settlement units are planned to be established between Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Also, 2,645 units are expected to receive approval in the future.
The illegal settlement plans have drastically increased since the U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, the report added.
Last December, Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, drawing widespread condemnation from across the region and angry protests in the Palestinian territories.
Jerusalem remains at the heart of the Middle East conflict, with Palestinians hoping that East Jerusalem — occupied by Israel since 1967 — might eventually serve as the capital of a Palestinian state.
International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as “occupied territories” and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity on the land as illegal.
—AA
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Corporate, Corporate Governance, Corporate Reports, News, Politics
By Arul Louis,
United Nations : As New Delhi diversifies its arms purchases, the US is rapidly increasing its arms sales to India, emerging over the last five years as its second biggest supplier by providing 15 per cent of its weapons imports, a study by Sipri said.
Washington increased its sales by more than five times compared to the previous five years, the authoritative Stockholm International Peace Research Institute said in its report released this week.
Israel has moved up to the third spot accounting for 11 per cent of India’s imports during the 2013-17 calendar years, Sipri added.
Although Russia remained by far India’s biggest arms seller, it share of total imports has fallen.
Russia had a 62 per cent share of India’s arms imports during the past five years, down from 79 per cent in 2008-12, according to the report that tracks the global arms trade.
Overall, India is the world’s biggest importer of major arms accounting for 12 per cent of the total global imports during the last five years and it increased purchases abroad by 24 per cent compared to the previous five-year period, Sipri said.
“The tensions between India, on the one side, and Pakistan and China, on the other, are fuelling India’s growing demand for major weapons, which it remains unable to produce itself, Sipri Senior Researcher Siemon Wezeman wrote.
“China, by contrast, is becoming increasingly capable of producing its own weapons and continues to strengthen its relations with Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar through arms supplies,” he wrote.
In contrast to India, Pakistan’s arms imports declined significantly during the last five years, when imports from the US dropped dramatically compared to the previous five years while supplies from China increased.
“Despite its continuing tensions with India and ongoing internal conflicts, Pakistan’s arms imports decreased by 36 per cent between 2008-12 and 2013-17,” the report said.
“Pakistan accounted for 2.8 per cent of global arms imports in 2013-17.”
Pakistan’s arms imports from the US dropped by 76 per cent in the latest five-year period compared with the previous one, the study said.
China was Pakistan’s main source of arms in 2013-17, and there was a large increase in Chinese arms exports to Bangladesh in that period, Sipri said.
According to supplementary arms import data for India provided to IANS by Sipri, the share of India’s imports from the US increased from 2.7 per cent of its total during 2008-12 to 15 per cent in the latest five-year period as it overtook Uzbekistan, Britain and Israel.
Uzbekistan, which was India’s second biggest import source accounting for 4.3 of its purchases abroad during 2008-12 did not sell any after 2011, according to the data.
Weapons imports from Britain fell to 3.2 per cent of the total during the last five years, while it was 5.2 per cent in 2008-12, a drop of 23 per cent during that period that moved it down from the third spot to the fifth.
France has moved up to the fourth spot accounting for 4.6 per cent of India’s imports during the last five years, an increase of 572 per cent compared to just 0.8 per cent.
Sipri does not assign monetary values for the arms trade and uses its own system called Trend-Indicator Value (TVI) because “data available from public sources will give sometimes monetary values, but also often such values are not available, not detailed, not clear or not comparable (between countries who report on different ‘weapons’ or as the coverage changes over time) enough to be useful,” Wezeman explained to IANS.
Under this way calculating, India’s total TVI rose from 14,608 during 2008-12 to 18,048 for 2013-17.
According to this valuation system, India’s arms purchases have come down during the last full three years of Bharatiya Janata Party government compared to the last three full years of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance rule.
During 2011-13, India’s imports were valued at 13,319 TVI by Sipri, but only 9,499 TVI in 2015-17. When both parties held power at different times during 2014, the imports were 3,227 TVI.
(Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in)
—IANS
