by admin | May 25, 2021 | World

Nikki Haley
By Umar Farooq,
Washington: The U.S. on Monday announced giving over $185 million in additional aid to Rohingya relief efforts in Myanmar and Bangladesh.
The announcement was made by U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, at a meeting attended by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
In a statement, Haley said the bulk of the aid would go towards helping Rohingya refugee communities in Bangladesh to support emergency services such as food, water, sanitation, health care and psychosocial support.
“Still more needs to be done, so we need other countries to do their part as well,” she said in the statement.
“This additional funding brings U.S. humanitarian assistance in response to the Rakhine State crisis to nearly $389 million since the outbreak of violence in August 2017,” read the statement.
Rohingya Persecution
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 also thrown into fires, while over 114,000 others were beaten, said the OIDA report, entitled Forced Migration of Rohingya: The Untold Experience.
According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly children and women, have fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community.
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.
The UN has documented mass gang rapes, killings — including of infants and young children — brutal beatings, and disappearances committed by Myanmar state forces. In a report, UN investigators said such violations may have constituted crimes against humanity.
—AA
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
New Delhi : US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said on Wednesday that religious freedom is as important as the freedom of rights and of people.
The highest ranking American of Indian origin in US President Donald Trump’s administration, Haley said there were multiple opportunities between the US and India including in counter-terrorism or military cooperation.
Haley, who is on a visit from June 26-28, said her visit was aimed “at once again solidifying” love for India and there were more and more reasons for the two countries to come together.
The US envoy said she looks forward to the inter-faith tour on Thursday. “I look forward to the inter-faith tour we are going to take tomorrow because we think freedom of religion is just as important as freedom of rights and freedom of people.”
She said both India and the US share common values and have a lot in common.
“We look to the fact that we are two of the oldest democracies that share the value of people, the values of freedom, the values of opportunity. We see there are opportunities between the US and India in multiple levels.
“Whether it is countering terrorism, whether it is the fact that we want to continue our democratic opportunities, or start to work together more strongly on the military aspect, there are lots of things that India and the US have in common,” she said as she visited Humayun’s Tomb earlier in the day.
Haley said the US was keen to further strengthen its relationship with India.
“I am here to once again solidify our love for India, our belief in the friendship that India and the US have and our willingness to make that relation even stronger. In this day and time we see more and more reasons for India and the US to come together.”
She added: “It is great to be back.” The US envoy was on her first visit to India after becoming US ambassador to the UN.
The daughter of Sikh immigrants from Punjab, Haley last visited India in 2014.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World

Nikki Haley
United Nations : The US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, has said that President Donald Trump’s “communication style” has made her uncomfortable and has proven to have complicated relationships in the diplomatic sphere.
“He has his communication style, but you are not hearing me defend that,” Haley was quoted as saying in a CBS interview.
Haley illustrated her disagreement with Trump citing a tweet of February when he accused Latin American countries of turning a blind eye on drug trafficking, Xinhua news agency reported.
“They’re laughing at us, so I’m not a believer in that, I want to stop the aid,” Trump said in the tweet, referring to the US aid to the region.
Haley later embarked on a trip to Honduras to reconcile and reassure local authorities on US foreign policy.
“If they get education and they get training, then we know that they’re going to be productive,” Haley said.
“If there is anything that he communicates in a way that I’m uncomfortable with, I pick up the phone and call him,” Haley said in the interview and added that Trump had been receptive of her opinion.
Trump has been known to make sensational claims and blunt assertions on social media, which he said helps him get his “unfiltered” message across but has created controversy and sometimes even rifts in the delicate world of diplomacy.
With his unconventional style, Trump has also created strains with American long time allies in Europe and Asia.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
United Nation : Expressing solidarity with the UK, US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, has warned that if concrete measures were not initiated, “Russia will use chemical weapons here in New York or in cities of any country that sits on this Council”.
Haley said the Donald Trump administration “stands in absolute solidarity with Great Britain” following a nerve agent attack against a Russian double agent and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury last week, the CNN reported.
In the strongest statement yet from the US administration on the affair, Haley said Washington shared the UK’s assessment that the Russian state was behind the poisoning and demanded a firm international response.
“The US believes that Russia is responsible for the attack on two people in the UK using a military-grade nerve agent,” Haley said in her remarks at a UN Security Council emergency session on Wednesday, blasting the Russian government for flouting international law, the CNN report said.
“If we don’t take immediate concrete measures to address this now, Salisbury will not be the last place we see chemical weapons used,” said Haley.
“They could be used here in New York or in cities of any country that sits on this council.”
Russia, however, has dismissed the accusations as “fairy tales” and denied any involvement in the attack which landed the Skripals, along with a British police officer, in the hospital.
The UK believes Russia was behind the attempted murders of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia because of the nerve agent used. Novichok, was developed in the Soviet Union and could not be replicated by non-state actors, CNN quoted UK officials as saying.
London on Wednesday announced it would expel 23 Russian diplomats after Moscow failed to meet a UK deadline to give a “credible response”.
Moscow’s Ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, even suggested the UK might have been responsible for the attack in an attempt to smear Russia. “In the Russian Federation, no scientific research or development work under the title Novichok were carried out,” he told the Security Council.
Laying the blame firmly at Russia’s door and highlighting Moscow’s support of the Assad regime in Syria following that government’s use of chemical weapons against civilians, Haley told fellow diplomats the world had reached “a defining moment”.
“Time and time again, members states say they oppose the use of chemical weapons under any circumstance,” said Haley. “Now one member stands accused of using chemical weapons on the sovereign soil of another member.
“The credibility of this Council will not survive if we fail to hold Russia accountable,” she said.
—IANS