In a separate statement on December 2, the President had said that the difficulties of the demarcation of maritime borders with Israel can be solved “through in-depth research based on international rights, articles of the law of the sea and all the legal texts thereof”…reports Asian Lite News
Lebanese President Michel Aoun said that the country will not hesitate to resort to international arbitration if the it fails to reach a fair agreement with Israel on maritime border demarcation.
Aoun made the remarks on Saturday, reports Xinhua news agency.
In a separate statement on December 2, the President had said that the difficulties of the demarcation of maritime borders with Israel can be solved “through in-depth research based on international rights, articles of the law of the sea and all the legal texts thereof”.
“Lebanon maintains its sovereignty over its land and waters, and wants the maritime demarcation negotiations to succeed to enhance stability in the south, and enable the investment in natural resources, such as gas and oil,” he had said.
The indirect talks, brokered by the US and the UN aimed to demarcate the maritime borders with Israel which are rich with hydrocarbon energy sources, started on October 14.
The next round of indirect negotiations between Lebanon and Israel over the maritime border demarcation has been postponed following Tel Aviv’s rejection of Beirut’s demands.
Lebanon and Israel this month said they had agreed to begin the negotiations in what Washington hailed as a “historic” agreement.
The announcement came weeks after Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates became the first Arab nations to establish relations with Israel since Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.
People wearing masks walk in downtown Tehran, Iran
The ministry’s spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said at daily briefing on Saturday that 12,151 new COVID-19 infections had been confirmed in the past 24 hours with 321 new fatalities. Of the newly infected, 1,562 had to be hospitalized..reports Asian Lite News
The COVID-19 epidemic has claimed 50,016 lives in Iran, with the total cases to 1,028,986 in the country, according to the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education.
The ministry’s spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said at daily briefing on Saturday that 12,151 new COVID-19 infections had been confirmed in the past 24 hours with 321 new fatalities. Of the newly infected, 1,562 had to be hospitalized, Xinhua news agency reported.
As of Saturday, 719,708 COVID-19 patients have recovered or been released from Iranian hospitals, but 5,817 others are currently in critical condition, she added.
Iran’s President Hasan Rouhani reported on the same day a significant decrease in COVID-19 infection levels across the country, after restrictions announced two weeks ago.
“Compared to the 160 red zones we had two weeks ago, we have now reduced them to 64 red zones with the efforts and observance from the people,” Rouhani said in an online meeting of the National Headquarters for Managing and Fighting the Coronavirus.
However, he warned that seven counties are in the state of ultrared where the infection rate is rising, according to reports.
The president also noted the decrease in the daily death toll in the country, from nearly 500 lives lost every day at the end of November to around 350 in the last few days.
“Very good work has been done during this period of restrictions, which have had positive effects, and all of this has been obtained thanks to the cooperation of the people,” he said.
Rouhani stressed that wherever the situation turn back to red alert conditions, restrictions will be reinforced.
Iran imposed restrictions on November 21 as part of the government’s measures to contain a new surge of the coronavirus epidemic and the restrictions were extended on Friday for two more weeks in the red high-risk areas.
The SNSC therefore called on all internal Iranian parties to end “fruitless quarrels”, and warned it will not allow national interests to be endangered by “political games”…reports Asian lite News
The Iranian Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) has endorsed a Parliament-ratified “Strategic Action to Lift Embargoes” law, intended to reduce international monitoring of the country’s nuclear program if embargoes were not lifted in the next two months.
“The aforementioned law does not create a specific issue that damages national interests,” Xinhua news agency quoted a statement by the SNSC as saying following the endorsement on Saturday.
What is contrary to national interests and is a matter of concern, the statement said, are controversies that “undermine the dignity and status of the country’s legal institutions and damage national unity and cohesion”.
The SNSC therefore called on all internal Iranian parties to end “fruitless quarrels”, and warned it will not allow national interests to be endangered by “political games”.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
The organ underlined that its secretariat has not been involved in the making of the law.
All procedures, it further said, have taken place in accordance with Parliament’s regulations and customary norms.
On December 1, the Iranian Parliament passed the bill, which urges the administration of President Hassan Rouhani to take several steps to increase the country’s nuclear activities for civil purposes, and may decrease international monitoring of these activities by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA).
The law mandates the government to halt the voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol document in two months, in case signatory states of the 2015 landmark nuclear agreement do not “normalize banking relations and completely remove barriers for exporting Iran’s oil”.
Iran has reduced its commitments under the agreement called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in response to the US’ withdrawal from the deal in 2018.
In reaction to the US’ withdrawal and in response to Europe’s sluggishness in facilitating Iran’s banking transactions and oil exports, Tehran has been gradually moving away from its nuclear commitments since May 2019.
In a statement on Thursday, the Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Shahid Meisami Group and its director Mehran Babri…reports Asian Lite News
The US Treasury Department has imposed sanctions against an Iranian entity and its director allegedly related to Iran’s chemical weapons research.
In a statement on Thursday, the Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated Shahid Meisami Group and its director Mehran Babri.
The Shahid Meisami Group is “involved in Iran’s chemical weapons research and is subordinate to the Iranian Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, also known as SPND”, the statement said.
The US had designated SPND in 2014 in connection with the Iranian regime’s proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) or their means of delivery.
The Group “has been responsible for numerous SPND projects, the cost of which totalled in the millions of US dollars”, the statement said.
Today, the United States is sanctioning an Iranian defense entity and individual involved in research for the Iranian Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND) that raises concerns under the Chemical Weapons Convention.
These projects include testing and producing chemical agents and optimising them for effectiveness and toxicity for use as incapacitation agents, it added.
Before being appointed the head of Shahid Meisami Group, Babri had worked at Iran’s Defence Chemical Research Lab, according to the Treasury Department.
“Iran’s development of weapons of mass destruction is a threat to the security of its neighbours and the world,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin was quoted as saying in the statement.
“The US will continue to counter any efforts by the Iranian regime to develop chemical weapons that may be used by the regime or its proxy groups to advance their malign agenda,” he added.
Thursday’s designation came days after the killing of Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh last week near the capital city Tehran.
IRAN NUKE SCIENTIST Mohsen Fakhrizadeh
Iran on Tuesday reiterated that it would punish the “perpetrators and commanders” in this assassination.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last month threatened that Washington would impose more sanctions against Iran in the coming weeks and months.
In May 2018, President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the Iranian nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and reimposed harsh sanctions against Tehran.
In response, Iran has gradually dropped some of its JCPOA commitments since May 2019.
It said the CAA needed to under a safety audit, adding that the ban can only be lifted if the Pakistani aviation regulatory body cleared the audit…reports Asian Lite News
The European Union (EU) has moved to retain its ban on Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flights from operating in the bloc’s member states, expressing dissatisfaction over the steps taken by Islamabad’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to address licensing and safety concerns, the media reported on Friday.
Responding to a letter sent by the PIA, the European Union Air Safety Agency (EASA) on Thursday told the flag carrier that since the CAA had not taken any steps to address the licensing system, the ban will remain in effect, The Express Tribune reported.
It said the CAA needed to under a safety audit, adding that the ban can only be lifted if the Pakistani aviation regulatory body cleared the audit.
In June, the EASA had suspended PIA flights operations in Europe for six months in the wake of the grounding of 262 Pakistani pilots whose licences were termed “dubious” by Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan.
Following the EASA’s move, the UK Civil Aviation Authority also withdrew PIA’s permit to operate from the Birmingham, London and Manchester airports.
Rao’s latest innovation is Kindly, an app and a Chrome extension – which uses machine learning technology to detect early traces of cyberbullying…reports Nikhila Natarajan
TIME magazine has put an Indian American teen “scientist and inventor” Gitanjali Rao on its first ever ‘Kid of the Year’ cover, selected from a field of more than 5,000 nominees for her “astonishing work using technology to tackle issues ranging from contaminated drinking water to opioid addiction and cyberbullying”.
Gitanjali Rao (15), lives in Lone Tree, Colorado.
Wearing a white lab coat over a casual dress and sporting a bunch of medals hanging from lanyards, Gitanjali Rao is pictured on the cover of TIME edition dated December 14. Seated on a white block, her shoulder length hair blowing in the wind, Rao cuts an image of cool confidence in a year that has been headlined by scientific breakthroughs.
“Even over video chat, her brilliant mind and generous spirit shone through, along with her inspiring message to other young people: don’t try to fix every problem, just focus on one that excites you,” writes Rao’s interviewer Angelina Jolie.
Rao’s latest innovation is Kindly, an app and a Chrome extension – which uses machine learning technology to detect early traces of cyberbullying.
“I started to hard-code in some words that could be considered bullying, and then my engine took those words and identified words that are similar. You type in a word or phrase, and it’s able to pick it up if it’s bullying, and it gives you the option to edit it or send it the way it is,” Rao explained to Jolie over a video call.
“The goal is not to punish. As a teenager, I know teenagers tend to lash out sometimes. Instead, it gives you the chance to rethink what you’re saying so that you know what to do next time around.”
Rao is currently working on what she calls an “an easy way to help detect bio-contaminants in waterethings like parasites”.
India may pursue a case for resumption of oil supplies from sanction-hit Iran and Venezuela once the Joe Biden administration takes charge in the US.
Sources in the Oil Ministry said that as a big importer of oil, India wanted to have a diversified market for crude and in this, if traditional markets like Iran and Venezuela are revived, it would only be for good.
Though, sources said there would not be any change in relations with the US with change of regime there, limited talks could be initiated to see if the oil market can be expanded for big buyers so that competitive pricing is derived.
Iran was India’s second largest oil supplier till sanctions by the West over its nuclear programme cut oil supplies.
India stopped crude oil supplies from Iran altogether from May 2019 following reimposition of US sanctions.
Venezuela, on the other hand, was the fourth largest crude supplier to India before US sanctions in January 2019 on the state-run companies there reduced their oil exports.
For India,p a wider crude oil import basket works to its advantage at it protects against supply disruptions in one of the countries. It also helps on getting better supply deals.
India imports 85 per cent of its oil needs and its dependence on oil expected to remain firm for at least next couple of decades. Energy consumption here is expected to grow by 3 per cent annually till 2040, much higher than any other energy guzzling country.
Noting that the Asia of 2030, will look very different from the Asia of today, the book says that for the first time in several centuries, “we are facing the prospect of an Asia that can actually flourish on its own economically and not simply by playing a role as an assembly hub and export powerhouse to the West”…writes Vishnu Makhijani
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh with the troops who participated in the para dropping and other military exercises at Stankna near Leh. (Photo IANS)
The irony couldn’t be more apt. The Sino-American rapprochement saw the once bitter enemies establishing diplomatic relations in 1979. A decade later came the Sino-Soviet rapprochement – again between two seemingly intractable ideologies – and the settlement of the Russia-China territorial dispute in 2004, to the extent that Russian turbofan engines now power the Chinese JF-17 jet that could soon become the mainstay of the Pakistani Air Force. Today, even the Arabs and the Israelis are talking about peace in a multipolar world that is taking shape with the re-emergence of Russia post the collapse of the Soviet Union.
“In the India-China case, both neighbours were attempting to move ahead without actually solving their problems, a formula that was exposed in 2020” with the PLA incursions in Eastern Ladakh, historian and strategist Zorawar Daulet Singh writes in “Powershift – India-China Relations In a Multipolar World” (Macmillan), suggesting that the two countries “explore new avenues that they could not delve into during the Cold War phase, where the frontier question dominated everything else”.
“What has led to the tailspin in India-China relations in recent years? We will not find the clues in some valley or a narrow stretch of road in the upper Himalayas. Rather, the main reason has been a systematic buildup of negative images of how each side viewed the other’s foreign policies along with a collapse in geopolitical trust,” writes Daulet Singh, who holds a doctorate in international relations from King’s College, London, and an MA from the School of Advanced Studies, Johns Hopkins University.
His previous books include “Power and Diplomacy: India’s Foreign Policies During the Cold War”, “India-China Relations: The Border Issue and Beyond” and “Chasing The Dragon: Will India Catch up with China?”
For India, the book says, China’s attempts to raise its economic and political profile in the subcontinent was seen as an encroachment on, and an affront to, Indian authority in the neighbourhood. For China, India’s pursuit of deeper military engagement with the former’s main strategic rivals – the US and Japan – was viewed as a serious challenge to its future security.
“Convinced that only an assertive policy would work, since 2015 both New Delhi and Beijing began exploiting leverages and pressure points to keep the other side off balance. India tilted closer to the US, China towards Pakistan and on a scale not witnessed even during the Cold War years,” Daulet Singh writes.
And, with India’s boycott of the BRI (Belt and Road Initiative), China found itself confronting not only the major holdout against its flagship international initiative “but also its most suspicious and non-cooperative neighbour in Asia”, the book says.
“Beijing also noticed that New Delhi was beginning to openly involve external powers to collaborate with it in an anti-China strategy in South Asia and the Indian Ocean. Worse still must have been the spectacle of India brandishing its Tibet card. Such unbridled competition has raised the costs for both India and China,” the author maintains.
The “short, if feeble episodes” to reach a new equilibrium through the informal summits in Wuhan (2018) and Chennai (2019) have obviously not been enough to reach a new modus vivendi, the book says, adding: “The crisis in eastern Ladakh for most of 2020 has shown just how intense threat perceptions and suspicions are on both sides of the Himalayas,” even as it argues for a “new equilibrium to mitigate the recurring cycles of intense competition in recent years”.
Zorawar Daulet Singh
Thus, India’s China policy is a profoundly consequential process that entails opportunities as well as risks with implications across a gamut of issues: to India’s global status and effectiveness in international institutions, geopolitical security, and economic transformation, the book says.
India’s China policy should aim to “responsibly compete” with its largest neighbour “albeit asymmetrically but effectively. This should not preclude creatively leveraging China’s economic power to transform the region, a pragmatic strategy that smaller South Asian states have been pursuing to their advantage”.
“Policymakers should also recognise the wider ramifications of China’s rise in world politics and remain acutely sensitive to when and to what extent India’s other strategic partners respond to and support India’s interests and concerns.
“The creativity lies in leveraging geopolitical opportunities where they exist without succumbing to a ‘ganging up’ game that leaves India vulnerable to pressure from China, while India’s friends, who have their own stakes with China, look on. It is a fine balancing act, and historically Indian strategists have got it more right than wrong,” Daulet Singh maintains.
India’s China policy, he writes, should be guided by three grand strategic goals: an inclusive security architecture in Asia that facilitates a non-violent transition to multipolarity without radically disrupting economic interdependence; an open and reformed international order to better reflect the developmental interests of India and the Global South; and, geopolitical stability and sustainable economic development in the subcontinent.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping
“China policy, therefore, must be part of a bigger foreign policy and world order vision for India, not the other way around,” the author states.
Noting that the Asia of 2030, will look very different from the Asia of today, the book says that for the first time in several centuries, “we are facing the prospect of an Asia that can actually flourish on its own economically and not simply by playing a role as an assembly hub and export powerhouse to the West”.
Greater Eurasia has the energy resources and strategic commodities of Russia including its strong scientific base of human capital, as well as the commercial technologies of Japan, China and Korea and it is this “big picture trend” that India needs to pay attention to, the book says.
“While the West will remain important, there is no viable way for India to avoid being part of this dynamic Asia and Greater Eurasia. Eventually, that boils down to having some sort of a stable India-China relationship. It has, thus, fallen upon the present generation of policymakers to steer India towards this complex multipolar world order. Major strategic choices have to be made and one hopes that India’s leaders have the long term view,” Daulet Singh writes.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping
Recalling a recent remark of Norwegian historian Odd Arne Westad that “the more the US and China beat each other up, the more room for manoeuvre other powers will have”, the author states that this mantra could equally be applied to India and China.
“Unrestrained competition only benefits other powers. As the 2020 Ladakh crisis bookends a tumultuous decade of India-China relations, both Delhi and Beijing would do well to heed the call of our time. History is obliging both countries to step up and play constructive roles to shape the emerging world order even as it is impelling both sides to learn to co-exist in a common neighbourhood,” Daulet Singh concludes.
“Powershift” is truly a seminal work that all stakeholders need to sit up and take a serious note of for the clarity of vision it provides.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, left foreground, at Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan in February 2020. (File Photo UNIAN)
Ashish Sharma, a First Secretary in India’s UN Mission said “This act goes against Sikh religion and its preservation and protection. You will recall that this holy Kartarpur Sahib Gurudwara finds mention in that earlier resolution. That resolution stands violated by Pakistan.”…reports Arul Louis
Kartarpur Sahib
India has accused Pakistan of violating the spirit of a UN resolution it had itself sponsored by transferring the control of the Kartarpur Sahib gurdwara to a non-Sikh body.
“This act goes against Sikh religion and its preservation and protection,” Ashish Sharma, a First Secretary in India’s UN Mission, said on Wednesday.
Last year, Pakistan had sponsored the resolution, “Promotion of Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, Understanding and Cooperation for Peace”, which called the opening of the Kartarpur corridor connecting the sacred shrine in Pakistan with the Dera Baba Nanak Sahib in India to facilitate pilgrimages “a landmark initiative for interreligious and intercultural cooperation for peace”.
However last month, it took away the control of the sacred shrine from the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Prabhandhak Committee and handed it to the Evacuee Trust Property Board, a statutory government body set up to manage the land and temples of the Sikhs and Hindus who had fled to India during the partition.
Speaking during a General Assembly debate on the “Culture of Peace”, Sharma said: “Pakistan has already violated the earlier resolution on Culture of Peace passed last year by this very assembly by arbitrarily transferring the Kartarpur shrine’s management to the administrative control of a non-Sikh body.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, left foreground, at the Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan in February 2020. (File Photo UNIAN)
“This act goes against Sikh religion and its preservation and protection. You will recall that this holy Kartarpur Sahib Gurudwara finds mention in that earlier resolution. That resolution stands violated by Pakistan.”
Pakistan, along with the Philippines, introduced a similar resolution again this year with a mention of Kartarpur Sahib and it was passed by with 90 votes and 52 abstentions with no votes against it.
This year’s resolution said that the the General Assembly “welcomes the initiative to open up the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor in the spirit of interfaith harmony and peaceful neighbourhood, and appreciates the agreement between the governments of India and Pakistan to allow visa-free access to pilgrims of all faiths, especially Nanak Naam Levas and the Sikh community from across the world, as a landmark initiative for interreligious and intercultural cooperation for peace”.
Sharma said that “if Pakistan changes its current culture of hatred against religions in India and stops its support of cross-border terrorism against our people, we can attempt a genuine culture of peace in South Asia and beyond”.
“Till then we will only be mute witness to Pakistan driving away their minorities by threat, coercion, conversion and killing. Even people of the same religion are not spared due to encouragement given to sectarian killing.”
Sharma expressed support for another resolution proposed by Bangladesh with the backing of 10 countries representing a wide spectrum of religions on action for a culture of peace and said India would also co-sponsor it.
“We appreciate the efforts of Bangladesh in presenting a resolution today on the follow-up of the Declaration and Programme of Action (on a Culture of Peace), which India is happy to co-sponsor.”
The resolution recognised “the importance of respect and understanding for religious and cultural diversity throughout the world, of choosing dialogue and negotiations over confrontation and of working together and not against each other”.
The other sponsors of the resolution that was adopted without any opposition were Angola, Armenia, Equatorial Guinea, Fiji, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Morocco, Qatar, Russian Federation, Singapore and Viet Nam.
On August 4, a cache of ammonium nitrate caused a deadly blast at the Port of Beirut, causing devastation in a city already suffering from a growing coronavirus outbreak, political and economic turmoil…reports Asian Lite News
Against the “grim background” of the tragic August 4 explosions that destroyed much of central Beirut, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has offered a new multi-agency plan to help the Lebanese people move forward.
“With the launch of the Reform, Recovery and Reconstruction Framework (3RF), prepared jointly by the World Bank, the European Union (EU) and UN, we have a plan,” Xinhua news agency quoted Guterres as saying in a video message on Wednesday to the International Conference in Support of the Lebanese People.
On August 4, a cache of ammonium nitrate caused a deadly blast at the Port of Beirut, causing devastation in a city already suffering from a growing coronavirus outbreak, political and economic turmoil.
The blast killed some 200 people, injured thousands of others, left around a quarter of a million homeless, sparked further protests toward the government, and prompted the resignation of Prime Minister Hassan Diab and his entire cabinet.
“Through this framework – the 3RF – we can, together, help the Lebanese people move beyond the emergency phase and onto the path for longer-term recovery and reconstruction,” Guterres said.
France hosted the video conference designed to finally unlock humanitarian aid, which has reportedly been stalled by the multiple crises afflicting Lebanon.
The new framework assesses the levels of incoming support against the continuing needs of the population – with a focus on the most vulnerable.
“We can address the recovery and reconstruction needs of Beirut, particularly of the port, as well as impacted areas and affected communities,” said the top UN official.
“With a sustainable urban planning approach and quick socio-economic recovery action, we can start to revitalize Beirut as the beating heart of Lebanon.”
The 3RF includes essential reforms, targeted not only to facilitate recovery and reconstruction but also to address the root causes of the crisis.
Guterres underscored the importance of mobilizing more support for the urgent needs of the families and businesses impacted by the explosion; the vulnerable and poor; and the marginalised and underserved.
“We must continue, with one voice, to call the leadership of Lebanon to put aside partisan political interests and form a government that adequately protects and responds to the needs of the people,” he added.
