US, Japan, Philippines condemn Beijing’s South China Sea moves in summit
US, Japan, Philippines condemn Beijing’s South China Sea moves in summit/node/2492126/world
US, Japan, Philippines condemn Beijing’s South China Sea moves in summit
Chinese structures and an airstrip on the man-made Subi Reef at the Spratly group of islands in the South China Sea are seen from a Philippine Air Force C-130. (AP file photo)
US, Japan, Philippines condemn Beijing’s South China Sea moves in summit
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Friday the statement amounted to a “wanton smear attack” and Beijing summoned a Japanese diplomat to protest against the comments
Updated 12 April 2024
Reuters
WASHINGTON: Long-simmering tensions between China and its neighbors took center stage on Thursday as leaders of the US, Japan and the Philippines met at the White House to push back on Beijing’s stepped-up pressure on Manila in the disputed South China Sea.
US President Joe Biden’s administration announced new joint military efforts and infrastructure spending in the former American colony while he hosted Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. alongside Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Washington for a first-of-its-kind trilateral summit.
Topping the meeting’s agenda was China’s increasing pressure in the South China Sea, which has escalated despite a personal appeal by Biden to Chinese President Xi Jinping last year.
HIGHLIGHT
Launching the White House meeting with the three leaders, Biden affirmed that a 1950s era mutual defense treaty binding Washington and Manila would require the US to respond to an armed attack on the Philippines in the South China Sea.
“We express our serious concerns about the People’s Republic of China’s dangerous and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea. We are also concerned by the militarization of reclaimed features and unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea,” the countries said in a statement issued after the summit.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Friday the statement amounted to a “wanton smear attack” and Beijing summoned a Japanese diplomat to protest against the comments.
The Philippines and China had several maritime run-ins last month that included the use of water cannon and heated verbal exchanges. The disputes center on the Second Thomas Shoal, home to a small number of Filipino troops stationed on a warship that Manila grounded there in 1999 to reinforce its sovereignty claims.
Launching the White House meeting with the three leaders, Biden affirmed that a 1950s era mutual defense treaty binding Washington and Manila would require the US to respond to an armed attack on the Philippines in the South China Sea.
“United States defense commitments to Japan and to the Philippines are iron clad,” he said.
Marcos has successfully pushed Washington to resolve longstanding ambiguity over the treaty by specifying that it would apply to disputes in that sea.
China claims almost the entire South China Sea, including the maritime economic zones of neighboring nations. The Second Thomas Shoal is within the Philippines’ 200-mile (320-km) exclusive economic zone.
A 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration found that China’s sweeping claims have no legal basis.
Japan has a dispute with China over islands in the East China Sea.
The three countries said their coast guards planned to conduct a trilateral exercise in the Indo-Pacific region in the coming year and establish a dialogue to enhance future cooperation.
The moves come after two prominent US senators introduced a bipartisan bill on Wednesday to provide Manila with $2.5 billion to boost its defenses against Chinese pressure.
“China’s frequent tactic is to try to isolate the target of its pressure campaigns, but the April 11 trilateral signals clearly that the Philippines is not alone,” said Daniel Russel, who served as the top US diplomat for East Asia under former President Barack Obama.
The leaders also unveiled a wide range of agreements to enhance economic ties during the meetings, including backing new infrastructure in the Philippines, aimed at ports, rail, clean energy and semiconductor supply chains.
Which presidential candidate do Jewish Americans support for peace in the Middle East?
Updated 22 sec ago
LONDON: On Oct. 7, the first anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on Israel, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her Jewish husband Doug Emhoff planted a small pomegranate tree in the grounds of the vice president’s residence at the US Naval Observatory.
The solemn occasion, and the tree itself, was freighted with symbolic meaning.
In Judaism, the fruit of the pomegranate tree is a symbol of righteousness and hope, traditionally served on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year. The fruit is said to contain 613 seeds — exactly the same number of the commandments, or mitzvot, found in the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.
Harris, who said she was planting the tree to remind future vice presidents “not only of the horror of Oct. 7, but (also) of the strength and endurance of the Jewish people,” dedicated it “to the 1,200 innocent souls who, in an act of pure evil, were massacred by Hamas terrorists.”
A few weeks earlier, her rival Donald Trump had made an altogether less subtle pitch for the votes of Jewish Americans. Addressing the Israeli-American Council summit in Washington at an event also held to commemorate Oct. 7, he told his audience that “anybody who’s Jewish and loves being Jewish and loves Israel is a fool if they vote for a Democrat.”
In fact, he added, any Jew who voted for Harris “should have your head examined.”
In truth, with precious votes to be had from Jewish and Arab voters alike in the seven key battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, both candidates are walking a tightrope between the regional sensibilities that could have such an impact on a presidential election taking place almost 10,000 km away.
And, as the recent Arab News-YouGov poll revealed, Arab American voters in particular are hard pressed to decide which of the two candidates, with their very different rhetorical styles, are likely to be better for the Middle East in general if elected president. Both Harris and Trump are each supported by exactly 38 percent of those polled.
As a mark of the general uncertainty about the real plans and intentions of either candidate once in office, supporters of both parties are switching their traditional allegiances just days before the election.
On Oct. 14, the Arab American Political Action Committee, which has consistently backed Democratic presidential nominees, announced that for the first time since its foundation in 1998 it would be endorsing neither candidate.
“Both candidates have endorsed genocide in Gaza and war in Lebanon,” AAPAC said in a statement. “We simply cannot give our votes to either Democrat Kamala Harris or Republican Donald Trump, who blindly support the criminal Israeli government.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s bravura performance at the Israeli American Council summit on Sept. 20, at which he cast himself as Israel’s “big protector” and suggested a Harris presidency would spell “annihilation” for the state, appears to have backfired.
His comments earned rebukes from organizations including the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL, addressed Trump’s remarks in a statement, saying that “preemptively blaming American Jews for your potential election loss does zero to help American Jews (and) increases their sense of alienation in a moment of vulnerability.”
As if to illustrate just how tricky the electoral tightrope is, strung as it is against the background of events in the Middle East, a poll commissioned by the Jewish Democratic Council of America at the beginning of October found that 71 percent of Jewish voters in the seven battleground states intended to vote for Harris, with only 26 percent backing Trump.
This is an intriguing development, especially when set alongside the findings of the Arab News-YouGov poll, which found a similar swing away from traditional voting intentions among Arab Americans, a slim majority of whom intend to vote for Trump.
The slight majority support for Trump (45 percent vs. 43 percent for Harris) is despite the fact that 40 percent of those polled described themselves as natural Democrats, and only 28 percent as Republicans.
It reflects disappointment in the Arab American community at the perceived failure of the Biden-Harris administration to adequately rein in Israel or hold it to account. In 2020, 43 percent of respondents had backed Biden, with only 34 percent voting for Trump.
As Firas Maksad, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington D.C., told a recent edition of the Arab News podcast “Frankly Speaking,” “the fact that they are so evenly split is surprising, particularly given what’s been happening in Gaza and now Lebanon.
“You’d think that that would have an impact and would dampen the vote for somebody who is so staunchly pro-Israel, like Donald Trump, but clearly that’s not the case.”
With just days to go until the election, however, it remains almost impossible to say with any certainty which of the candidates would be best for the Middle East in general, and in particular for resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Even the experts are struggling to predict how a Harris administration and a Trump administration might differ in their approach to the Middle East.
“When you dig a little deeper into things beyond our headlines, beyond our polarized politics, President Trump’s and Vice President Harris’ positions on a variety of important issues in the Middle East — whether it’s the two-state solution, whether it’s US policy toward Iran, whether it’s regarding human rights and promotion of democratic reform in the region — are not all that different from each other,” said Steven Cook, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, speaking in a Foreign Policy magazine election debate on Monday.
“On the two-state solution they obviously have very different visions of what that would look like, based on President Trump’s ‘deal of the century’ that he tabled during his one term in office. But nevertheless, they’re both supportive of a two-state solution to bring the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians to an end.”
Similarly, although in 2018 Trump pulled out the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the nuclear deal adopted by Iran and the P5+1 countries in 2015, both candidates now appear committed to reinvigorating it.
“President Trump was often bellicose about Iran,” said Cook. “But his bellicosity hid the fact that what he was most interested in was putting pressure on the Iranians to bring them back to the negotiating table so that he can negotiate a better deal than the JCPOA.
“The administration that Vice President Harris has served has for the past two and a half years sought to draw the Iranians back into a JCPOA deal that would put limits on Iran’s nuclear program.
“So, on those big issues there may be a difference in style, a difference in rhetoric, but the ultimate policy goal of both candidates seems to me very much the same.”
Speaking in the same debate, Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa Program at the Chatham House policy institute, said that there were still many question marks hanging over Harris’ approach to the region.
“She’s very cautious; she’s a bit of a black box and so we can read whatever we want into her,” she said. “But there’s also no guarantee as to what will come out from President Trump (on) the Middle Eastern landscape.
“I think there is a lot of expectation that he will stop the war, because he has implied as much, and for a lot of leaders around the region, but more broadly for citizens across multiple Middle Eastern countries, this is urgent.
“They would like to see the violence coming to an end, regular humanitarian aid being delivered to Gaza, and, of course, the violence also stopped in Lebanon, and that is the expectation, that Trump is going to pick up the phone to Prime Minister Netanyahu and put an end to this conflict.”
There is also an anticipation that Trump “will try to find some way around his previous engagement in the region to invest in an Israeli-Saudi normalization process,” she said. “But here there’s a caveat.
“Over the past year and particularly over the past few weeks the Saudi leadership have made it very clear that normalization is going to be predicated not on a process but on (Palestinian) statehood, and so there will (have to) be negotiation on what all of that means.”
On Oct. 14, the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations, an independent, non-partisan think tank, published a report comparing and contrasting the two candidates’ positions on a series of global issues, including Israel, Gaza and the Middle East.
Harris, it summarized, “backs Israel’s right to self-defense but has also been outspoken about the toll on Palestinian civilians amid the war between Israel and Hamas.”
As a result, many of her policy positions have been contradictory. For example, she called for an Israel-Hamas ceasefire in March, a month ahead of President Biden, criticized Israel’s leadership for the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza and called for a two-state solution “where the Palestinians have security, self-determination and the dignity they so rightly deserve.”
She has also said Israel must bring to justice “extremist settlers” responsible for violent attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Yet Harris has also said she “will always give Israel the ability to defend itself” and fully supports US military aid to Israel (worth more than $12 billion since Oct. 7, 2023), which she has vowed to continue providing if elected president.
In the past, Trump’s support for Israel, “a cherished ally,” has raised hackles across the region.
In 2017 he recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moved the US embassy there. In 2019 he reversed decades of US policy and recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights, seized from Syria by Israel in 1967.
In 2020 his Abraham Accords were widely seen as favoring Israel and patronizing the Palestinians, while from an Arab perspective the fatal flaw in a two-state peace initiative he unveiled that same year was that it proposed granting Israel sovereignty over much of the occupied territories.
Trump’s “Peace to Prosperity: A vision to improve the lives of the Palestinian and Israeli people,” which he unveiled alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, received a mixed reaction.
It was rejected by the Arab League and denounced by President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority as a “conspiracy deal,” but received more positive reviews from Gulf states.
The UAE’s ambassador to Washington called it “a serious initiative that addresses many issues raised over the years,” while Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it “appreciates the efforts of President Trump’s administration to develop a comprehensive peace plan.”
The plan, three years in the making, was never implemented. Intriguingly, however, it remains on the shelf, an oven-ready initiative that would allow a new Trump administration to hit the ground running in pursuit of his claim that only he is capable of bringing peace to the region.
It was, perhaps, telling that in the middle of campaigning in the knife-edge presidential race, Trump took time out last week to give an exclusive interview to Saudi TV channel Al Arabiya — recalling that his first overseas trip as president in 2017 had been to the Kingdom.
“I want to see the Middle East get back to peace but peace that’s going to be a lasting peace and I feel really truly confident it’s going to happen, and I believe it’s going to happen soon,” he told Al Arabiya’s Washington bureau chief, Nadia Bilbassy-Charters.
He stressed his admiration for, and friendship with, the Saudi crown prince, adding: “I was respected over there and (had) great relationships with so many including (Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman) and (if elected on Nov. 5) we’re going to get it done and it’s going to get done properly.”
The US election, he predicted, “is going to make a big difference.”
JAKARTA: Indonesia called on the UN Security Council on Tuesday to halt Israel’s ban on the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, a move Jakarta says violates the world organization’s charter and immunity of its bodies.
On Monday evening, the Israeli parliament — the Knesset — passed two bills; one barring UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees from operating on territories occupied by Israel, and another banning Israeli authorities from any contact with the UN agency.
The bans, set to take effect in 90 days, are expected to severely restrict UNRWA from operating in the regions where it is supporting the Palestinian population in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza strip.
“This decision clearly violates and contradicts the UN Charter and the 1946 Convention on the immunities of UN agencies,” the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
“Indonesia urges the international community, especially the UN Security Council, to immediately halt Israel’s actions and ensure its compliance with obligations under international law, UN Security Council resolutions, and the ICJ (International Court of Justice) rulings to end the occupation in Palestine.”
In July, the ICJ ruled that Israel’s occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories is unlawful and should come to an end “as rapidly as possible.”
Indonesia has been increasing its contributions to UNRWA since Israel’s war on Gaza escalated last October.
“UNRWA is an agency mandated by the United Nations to serve an irreplaceable role in providing education, healthcare, and aid to millions of Palestinian refugees. Indonesia reaffirms its commitment to continue supporting UNRWA in discharging its mandate,” the ministry said.
UNRWA was established by the UN General Assembly in 1949, originally to support 700,000 Palestinians who were forced from their homes during the creation of Israel.
Today, it serves some 5.9 million people and operates in the occupied Palestinian territories, as well as Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, with contributions from UN member states.
Since Israel escalated its attacks on Gaza more than a year ago, nearly all Palestinians in the area have relied on UNRWA for basic necessities.
This includes reliance on food, water and hygiene supplies, while almost half of the enclave’s 2.2 million population have been sheltered in the UN agency’s schools, clinics and public facilities.
Israeli forces have killed at least 233 UNRWA staff in the year-long war, during which Tel Aviv launched an intense campaign to delegitimize the UN body.
This includes accusing UNRWA employees of association with the Gaza-based militant group Hamas, which earlier this year had led to some countries, including the US, suspending funding for the agency.
Most nations have since restored their contributions, with the exception of Washington, its biggest donor.
Monday’s vote by the Israeli parliament “sets a dangerous precedent,” said UNRWA head, Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.
He wrote on X that it “will only deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in Gaza where people have been going through more than a year of sheer hell.”
Israel’s relentless air and ground attacks on Gaza have killed over 43,000 Palestinians and injured more than 101,000. The real death toll is suspected to be much higher, with estimates published by medical journal The Lancet indicating that, as of July, it could be more than 186,000.
“Failing to push back these bills will weaken our common multilateral mechanism established after World War 2,” Lazzarini said. “This should be a concern to all.”
Bangladesh requests Saudi support in skills development
New leadership highlights Saudi Arabia’s importance for Bangladesh’s development
Muhammad Yunus discusses investment policy and opportunities with Kingdom’s envoy
Updated 29 October 2024
Shahab Sumon
DHAKA: The chief adviser of Bangladesh’s caretaker government, Dr. Muhammad Yunus, has requested Saudi support in training Bangladeshi talent and helping develop their skills.
Yunus, economics professor and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, took charge of Bangladesh in August, when ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina quit and fled the country amid violent protests.
His interim administration has since been implementing a series of reforms, after which it is expected to announce new general elections.
Yunus held a meeting with Saudi Ambassador Essa Al-Duhailan at his office in Dhaka on Monday to discuss policy and facilitating investment opportunities from the Kingdom.
“For our development, Saudi Arabia is a very important country. We share many things common in various international forums, including OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation),” Mohammed Abul Kalam Azad Majumder, the chief adviser’s deputy press secretary, told Arab News.
“The discussion with the Saudi Ambassador Essa Yousef Al-Duhailan focused mainly on trade and investment. Prof. Yunus requested more investment from Saudi Arabia and also increased support in the energy sector.”
There are some 3 million Bangladeshis in Saudi Arabia, accounting for over half of Bangladeshi migrant workers.
They constitute the largest expat group in the Kingdom and the biggest Bangladeshi community outside Bangladesh.
“Prof. Yunus requested the ambassador to cooperate for building trained human resources in Bangladesh, which will eventually be beneficial for both brotherly countries. In this way, our migrants will receive a better salary in the Kingdom and will be able to send more remittance to the country,” Majumder said.
Helping advance the professional competence of Bangladeshi workers would allow more of them to enter the Saudi labor market, where opportunities are vast with many megaprojects under the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 transformation strategy.
“It will also foster entrepreneurship among Bangladeshi youths. The ambassador said his country is ready to provide necessary support in this regard,” Majumder said.
More than a fourth of Bangladesh’s 170 million population are between the ages of 15 and 29. The unemployment rate is the highest in this group, contributing 83 percent of the total unemployed people in the country.
UN rights chief urges Bangladesh to ‘protect’ democracy after revolution
‘Democracy is one of the most powerful ideas ever dreamed up by humanity’
‘But it is also fragile – something that we must nurture and protect – particularly in its earliest stages’
Updated 29 October 2024
AFP
DHAKA: UN rights chief Volker Turk on Tuesday urged students at Bangladesh’s Dhaka University, the heart of the uprising that toppled autocratic leader Sheikh Hasina, to “protect” democracy to end cycles of revenge.
“Democracy is one of the most powerful ideas ever dreamed up by humanity... but it is also fragile — something that we must nurture and protect — particularly in its earliest stages,” Turk said in an address.
“I know you are aware of the pitfalls that led other pro-democracy movements into a dead end.”
Tens of thousands demonstrated on campus and in the surrounding neighborhood as protests against job quotas morphed into a nationwide struggle to end Hasina’s 15 years of iron-fisted rule.
More than 700 people were killed, many in a brutal police crackdown, before Hasina fled to India by helicopter on August 5.
Several of the top student protest leaders were enrolled at the university, some of whom are now part of the cabinet of the interim government which is led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.
Hasina’s rule saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents. A Bangladeshi court this month issued an arrest warrant for the ousted leader.
Turk told students they had “shown great courage in standing up for justice and equality,” and that he was honored to address them “at a pivotal time, and in a symbolic place.”
But he also warned them of the risks as they support the huge challenge of restoring democratic institutions.
“Beware of the idea that the ends justify the means,” Turk added.
“The process through which you seek change is just as crucial as the outcome. Strengthening institutions can be more important in the long term than tearing them down.”
Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, is on a two-day visit to Dhaka to meet with Yunus, the chief justice, army chief and other leaders, his office said.
“Inequality, cycles of revenge and retribution, marginalization, corruption, and gross human rights violations must be consigned to the past. There must be no repetition, no going back. The present and future belong to equality, to justice.”
Dozens of Hasina’s allies have been arrested, while the last known whereabouts of the 77-year-old fugitive was a military air base near India’s capital New Delhi.
“We cannot allow a vicious new cycle of reprisals and revenge to repeat itself,” Turk added.
“The pursuit of justice must also go beyond trials of those responsible, and address the root causes to achieve the broader social transformation to which you aspire.”
Trump adviser Bannon released from prison: US media
Steve Bannon left a federal prison in Connecticut, where he served time for a contempt of Congress conviction
Updated 29 October 2024
AFP
WASHINGTON: Steve Bannon, a prominent right-wing figure and former senior adviser to Donald Trump, was released from prison early Tuesday after spending nearly four months behind bars, US media reported.
Bannon left a federal prison in Connecticut, where he was serving time for a contempt of Congress conviction, just a week ahead of the US presidential election in which his former boss Trump is seeking to regain the White House.
