Category: Asia News

At least 78 rebels were killed overnight by a Russian airstrike against an opposition military camp in Idlib…reports Asian Lite News

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticised Russia for conducting an airstrike that killed dozens of Turkey-backed rebels in northwestern Idlib province of Syria.

“Russia’s attack on the training center of the Syrian National Army forces in the Idlib region shows it does not want lasting peace in the region,” Erdogan said addressing his lawmakers at the parliament on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

At least 78 rebels were killed overnight by a Russian airstrike against an opposition military camp in Idlib, a war monitor reported on Monday.

About 90 others were wounded by the Russian airstrike which targeted the camp of a Turkey-backed rebel group in the western countryside of Idlib, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

• 

Erdogan also said Turkey had the legitimate right to act once again if militants are not cleared along its border with Syria, referring to Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).

Turkey sees the YPG group as the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The Turkish army launched Operation Euphrates Shield in 2016, Operation Olive Branch in 2018, Operation Peace Spring in 2019, and Operation Spring Shield in 2020 in northern Syria in order to create a YPG-free zone along its border within the neighbouring country.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the United States, and the EU, has been rebelling against the Turkish government for over 30 years, which has claimed the lives of more than 40,000 people.

Also read;‘Russia is one of main defence partners’: Iran

After the death of 415 people in the past 24 hours, the epidemic has claimed 33,714 lives in Iran so far…reports Asian Lite News

Iran announced its highest daily figure of deaths related to the COVID-19 epidemic so far, after 415 people died in the past 24 hours, according to the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education’s website.

Sima Sadat Lari said at her daily briefing on Wednesday that 6,824 new infections were confirmed overnight, which takes the total number of cases to 588,648, Xinhua news agency reported.

After the death of 415 people in the past 24 hours, the epidemic has claimed 33,714 lives in Iran so far, she added.

Fortunately, the spokeswoman further noted, 467,917 patients have as of Wednesday recovered or been released from hospitals in the country.

• 

Currently, she went on to say, 5,012 COVID-19 patients are in critical condition in Iranian intensive care units.

The number of laboratory tests carried out in Iran for COVID-19 has now reached 4,821,681, according to Sadat Lari.

The risk of infection is currently high in 27 out of 31 Iranian provinces, while four others are on yellow alert over the spread of the disease.

Following the recent COVID-19 resurgence in Iran, the health authorities have reintroduced strict protective measures and compulsory use of face masks in the capital Tehran and major cities of the country.

Also read:US imposes sanctions on Iranian oil sectorz

The cartoon depicts Turkey’s president lifting the dress of a veiled woman…reports Asian Lite News

Turkey has vowed to take “legal, diplomatic actions” over a cartoon of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in French magazine Charlie Hebdo.

The cartoon depicts Turkey’s president lifting the dress of a veiled woman.

State media say Turkish prosecutors have launched an official investigation into the satirical magazine, the BBC reported.

Tensions between France and Turkey are high after President Emmanuel Macron pledged a tougher stance against radical Islam.

Erdogan has called on Turks to boycott French goods and said Macron needed “mental checks”.

Macron pledged to defend secularism following the killing of a teacher who had shown his students a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad.

• 

State secularism is central to France’s national identity. Curbing freedom of expression to protect the feelings of one particular community undermines unity, the state says.

Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun said: “Charlie Hebdo just published a series of so-called cartoons full of despicable images purportedly of our President. We condemn this most disgusting effort by this publication to spread its cultural racism and hatred.”

Vice-President Fuat Oktay called on the international community to raise its voice against “this disgrace”.

“You cannot fool anyone by hiding behind freedom of thought,” he said on Twitter.

In response, the Turkish pro-government satirical magazine Misvak posted a number of cartoons criticising Macron and Charlie Hebdo on its Twitter page.

French President Macron’s anti-Muslim agenda is bearing fruit! Charlie Hebdo just published a series of so-called cartoons full of despicable images purportedly of our President. We condemn this most disgusting effort by this publication to spread its cultural racism and hatred.

— Fahrettin Altun (@fahrettinaltun) October 27, 2020

In 2015, 12 people were killed in an attack on the offices of the magazine in Paris. It was targeted by Islamic extremists for publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.

The same year, Russia heavily criticised the magazine for two cartoons depicting the Sinai air crash in which 224 people, mostly Russians, died.

In 2016, a cartoon depicting Italian earthquake victims as pasta dishes caused outrage.

Also read:Turkey extends gas exploration in Mediterranean

Maryam Nawaz, in her address, said that the time has come to change the fate of Pakistan and Balochistan. “No longer will husbands and brothers go missing, people of Balochistan,” daughter of former PM Nawaz Sharif, who wore a traditional Balochi dress, told the huge gathering…reports ATEET SHARMA

Facing death and discrimination at the hands of Pakistani authorities for decades, the Baloch freedom fighters have their chests all pumped up after a top leader demanded yesterday the creation of an “independent Balochistan state” during a massive rally which was also addressed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) vice-president Maryam Nawaz, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chief chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif via video link from London.

Addressing the 11-party Pakistan Democratic Movement’s (PDM’s) third march against the Imran Khan government in Quetta, Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan (JUP) leader Maulana Shah Owais Noorani has put his stamp of approval on Balochistan’s separation from Pakistan.

“We want Balochistan as an independent state. Today, Balochistan looks like an underdeveloped area of the country,” Maulana Owais Noorani said in his speech, the video of which has gone viral on the social media and has caught more attention in the country than the comments made by other Opposition leaders in the same rally.

It included Maryam Nawaz’s address in which she said that the time has come to change the fate of Pakistan and Balochistan. “No longer will husbands and brothers go missing, people of Balochistan,” daughter of former PM Nawaz Sharif, who wore a traditional Balochi dress, told the huge gathering.

Noorani invited wrath of the ruling government immediately with the federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Shibli Faraz calling him a “political pygmy” who is promoting the “enemies’ narrative” from the PDM platform.

“No Pakistani can accept the narrative which the opposition PDM has started to present all of a sudden. They are talking about breaking up of Balochistan and liberating it,” the minister told Dawn in an interview.

Shibli’s colleague Murad Saeed, the federal Minister for Communications, accused Noorani of “creating divisions within the country without knowing the grand game” and Shireen Mazari, the Minister for Human Rights in Imran Khan’s cabinet, took on Maryam Nawaz saying that she “has suddenly discovered issue of Enforced Disappearances…”

Well aware of the fact that the Pakistani politicians have been fooling them for years, as well as the world community, the Balochs are happy with the ongoing political storm generated by the rally. The activists are relieved to see the top leaders from national political parties raise their concern from the dais about the main issue of missing persons and the atrocities committed by the state authorities.

“Gulistan ko lahoo ki zaroorat pari, sab se pehlay hi gardan hamari kati, Phir bhi kehtay hain mujh say yeh ahle-chaman, yeh chaman hai hamara, tumhara nahi” (Whenever the country needed sacrifice, we were the first to offer our lives. Yet, our fellow countrymen tell us, this is their country and not ours),” said Balochistan National Party president Sardar Akhtar Mengal alleging that the Balochs have never been treated as equal citizens in Pakistan.

The bloodbath and the genocide taking place in Balochistan is highlighted almost every week by a major international agency. As you read this, people continue to disappear in Pakistan’s southwestern province at the hands of the country’s security services.

On Sunday, the Human Rights Council of Balochistan thanked the South Asian arm of the United Nations Human Rights organization for noticing and raising the issue of Baloch missing persons. “We hope, Pakistan will be asked why it does not reply to the request of Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to investigate the enforced disappearances in Balochistan,” the council said.

An inter-governmental body responsible for strengthening the promotion and protection of human rights around the south Asian countries, the UN Human Rights agency had expressed its concern over the Pakistani government’s failure to disclose information regarding unacknowledged detention, and enforced disappearances in Balochistan.

“Pakistani security forces and law enforcement agencies continuously commit enforced disappearances with impunity, targeting journalists, activists, Army and government critics especially in Balochistan. We have highly concerns on this issue. The UN Human Rights has expressed concern over the Pakistani government’s failure to disclose information regarding unacknowledged detention, and enforced disappearances. Pakistani authorities have failed to respond to the repeated calls from families of the disappeared for investigations into the enforced disappearance of their loved ones,” the agency said in a statement.

With the Imran Khan government getting into a tight spot with every passing day and the Opposition realizing — at least for the time being — the pain of the Balochs, is the wind of change finally blowing in Balochistan?

In a virtual briefing to the Security Council on Monday, Mladenov told that “a coherent, coordinated approach” was needed to contain the pandemic…reports Asian Lite News

Nickolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, has warned that the Covid-19 pandemic was feeding off instability in the region.

In a virtual briefing to the Security Council on Monday, Mladenov told the 15-member body that “a coherent, coordinated approach” was needed to contain the pandemic, saying that the UN would continue to advocate for increasing cooperation, including urging the parties to “work together to mitigate risks, save lives and avoid unilateral actions that undermine these efforts”, reports Xinhua news agency.

With a significant tightening of restrictions in Israel and Gaza, a state of emergency extension throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the resurgence of Covid-19 has “seriously compounded the humanitarian and economic challenges on the ground”, Mladenov said.

While UN-brokered arrangements continue to allow medical patients to be transferred from Gaza to hospitals beyond, and humanitarian supplies into the enclave, the Palestine Authority’s decision to halt coordination with Israel remains.

“The UN cannot replace the roles and responsibilities of the Palestinian Authority or the Government of Israel,” he said.

“Any increased responsibilities for the UN in this regard should be limited and timebound.”

• 

While the international community’s commitment “remains unwavering” in its support to both sides in finding a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the UN envoy asserted that the process requires “leadership from both Israelis and Palestinians to work together and advance the cause of peace”.

The world body “stands ready to mediate solutions to the fiscal crisis and to get the Palestinian economy on better footing”, said Mladenov, reiterating the UN chief’s call for both sides to “re-examine the nature of their economic relationship and improve it for the benefit of both peoples.”

He appealed to the Palestinian leadership to resume its coordination with Israel and accept its clearance revenues, calling it “money that belongs to the Palestinian people and cannot be replaced by donor funding”.

Pointing to the recent normalization agreements between Israel and Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Sudan, along with statements from international partners and the League of Arab States, the special coordinator said that “the commitment to the two-state solution, in line with UN resolutions and international law, continues to be affirmed by broad regional and international consensus”.

Also read:Nagorno-Karabakh ceasefire to take effect on Monday

“The regime in Iran uses the petroleum sector to fund the destabilizing activities of the IRGC-QF.” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin reports Asian Lite News

The US has imposed fresh sanctions against the Iranian oil sector, for their “financial support” to Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force (IRGC-QF), according to the Treasury Department.

In a statement on Monday, the Department that said its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has imposed the sanctions against the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum, the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) and the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC).

The Department has claimed that senior NIOC and NITC personnel “worked closely with Rostam Ghasemi, a senior IRGC-QF official and former Minister of Petroleum who was designated in 2019”.

It added that Ghasemi has assumed a portion of late Commander Qasem Soleimani’s role in “facilitating shipments of oil and petroleum products for the financial benefit of the IRGC-QF”.

Soleimani was killed in a US airstrike on January 3 near the Baghdad airport, which further escalated tensions between Washington and Tehran.

Sanctions have been also imposed on “entities and individuals associated with the Ministry of Petroleum, NIOC, and NITC, including front companies, subsidiaries, and senior executives, as well as four persons involved in the recent sale of Iranian gasoline to the illegitimate Maduro regime in Venezuela”, the Department said in the statement.

NSA @robertcobrien just admitted that U.S. has out-sanctioned its ability to inflict more pain on Iranian people.

Time for the US to finally admit it is a #SanctionAddict.

Kick the habit. More economic warfare against Iran will bring the U.S. less—and not more—influence. pic.twitter.com/jgAkE16Yoe

— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) October 26, 2020

“The regime in Iran uses the petroleum sector to fund the destabilizing activities of the IRGC-QF,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was quoted as saying in the statement.

“The Iranian regime continues to prioritize its support for terrorist entities and its nuclear program over the needs of the Iranian people,” he added.

These latest sanctions came days after President Donald Trump’s administration blacklisted Iran’s ambassador to Iraq, whom the US claimed was “acting for or on behalf of the IRGC-QF”.

Responding to Monday’s development, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that “time for the US to finally admit it is a #SanctionAddict”.

Kick the habit. More economic warfare against Iran will bring the US less-and not more-influence,” he added.

Also read:‘Russia is one of main defence partners’: Iran