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Qureshi to meet Swaraj on sidelines of UNGA

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday that foreign ministers from both countries will meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, to be held in New York, next week. Pakistan said on Thursday that Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan sent a letter to his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, requesting the resumption of talks on all outstanding issues. (Combo image of AFP file photos)
Updated 20 September 2018
Aamir Shah
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Qureshi to meet Swaraj on sidelines of UNGA

  • Pakistan and India foreign ministers to hold talks after three years
  • Move follows PM Khan’s letter to Indian PM Modi proposing a “meaningful dialogue”
Updated 20 September 2018
Sanjay Kumar Aamir Shah

NEW DELHI, ISLAMABAD: Signaling a thaw in frosty relations between India and Pakistan, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday that foreign ministers from both countries will meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, to be held in New York, next week.

The development, considered a major breakthrough in the stalled relations between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, follows a letter written by Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan to his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, requesting the resumption of talks on all outstanding issues.

PM Khan, in the letter dated September 14, had proposed a meeting between Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Pakistani counterpart, Shah Mahmood Qureshi. He said that an informal meeting of the Saarc (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation), on the sidelines of the UNGA, would be the ideal platform to kickstart the dialogue. 

“We have just agreed to the meeting. The agenda is not finalized,” Raveesh Kumar, MEA spokesperson, said during a press briefing, in New Delhi, on Thursday.

“This should not be confused with the resumption of any dialogue; this is just a meeting on the request of Pakistan. This does not indicate any change in our policy as far as our stand on terrorism and cross border terrorism is concerned,” he added.

Earlier on Thursday, Pakistan’s Special Assistant to Prime Minister, Iftikhar Durrani, told Arab News: “We believe in peace with our neighbors and that's why Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged his Indian counterpart for a dialogue.”

Durrani said that PM Khan acknowledges the fact that “Pakistan remains ready to discuss terrorism” and that the letter was his initiative to restart the negotiation process. He added that the only way forward for the two countries “lies in constructive engagement,” even as both the neighbors had an “undeniably challenging relationship”.

Kashmir-based Indian political analyst, Siddiq Wahid, said he believed “any call for the resumption of talks is very good and should be welcomed.” 

But not before he added a caveat. “I am doubtful if Prime Minister Modi can make any conciliatory gesture towards Pakistan considering the current reality of the domestic politics in India and the mood of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) cadres in the country. It seems that for anything substantial to come out between India and Pakistan one will have to wait till 2019, when general elections get over,” Wahid, a scholar on Central Asia and Tibetan history, said. 

He underlined the fact that “dialogue between India and Pakistan does not influence the situation in Kashmir much”, even though the outcome of the talks “would be directly proportional to the political climate within Jammu and Kashmir”. “The most important thing is to stop the human rights violations in the valley,” he added.

Ayaz Wazir, a senior Pakistani diplomat, concurs.

Terming PM Khan’s letter as a “good initiative”, he said any issue, including Kashmir, can be resolved through negotiations. “Peaceful resolution of the issues should be the top priority of both governments as this will bring prosperity not only to the people of the two countries but to the entire region as well,” he told Arab News.

In the past, analysts from both sides had suggested that with the Indian general elections slotted for 2019, it may be domestically challenging for the Modi government to make any concessions for Pakistan, considering Modi’s BJP derives considerable electoral support from the more conservative elements of the Indian political spectrum.

Zaigham Khan, an Islamabad-based political analyst, said that both countries should take “extraordinary measures” to build a positive public opinion for talks, arguing that a meaningful dialogue was not possible without strengthening the peace constituency on both sides of the border.  “Unfortunately hawks on both sides have always played their role to stall the dialogue process and the leaders of both countries should first devise a strategy to deal with them,” Khan told Arab News.

Adding that talks between Qureshi and Swaraj could pave way for a subsequent meeting between the prime ministers of both countries, PM Khan said in his letter to PM Modi that the summit “will offer an opportunity for you to visit Pakistan and for us to re-start the stalled dialogue process”.  

However, MEA spokesman Kumar reasoned that “the atmosphere in the region is not conducive for the Saarc summit”, dispelling expectations of India’s participation in the same.

It was in December 2015 that India had a substantive engagement with Pakistan when Foreign Minister Swaraj had traveled to Islamabad for the Heart of Asia conference.

Topics: Pakistan India Meeting foreign ministers international news latest news headline

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Chile joins developing nations rallying behind genocide case against Israel at international court

Updated 4 sec ago
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Chile joins developing nations rallying behind genocide case against Israel at international court

  • President Borice said he was appalled by the humanitarian devastation in Gaza
Updated 4 sec ago
AP

SANTIAGO: Chile has joined a group of nations supporting a genocide case against Israel filed last year at the International Court of Justice.
President Gabriel Boric said in a speech to lawmakers Saturday that he was appalled by the humanitarian devastation in Gaza, especially against women and children. He accused the Israeli army of using "indiscriminate and disproportional" force.
“These acts demand a firm and permanent response of the international community,” the president said.
South Africa last year accused Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, of violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention. Israel has strongly rejected the claim and has argued that the war in Gaza is a legitimate defense against Hamas militants for their Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that killed around 1,200 people and took 250 hostages.
Chile is home to the largest Palestinian community outside the Middle East, with a population of around 500,000, many of them descendants of Christian Arab immigrants in the 19th and 20th centuries. They took root in the South American country as small retail traders but have since gained prominence in business and politics. One of the country's most popular soccer teams is Palestino, whose white, black, green and red uniforms match the colors of the Palestinian flag.
Chile joins a group of mostly developing countries including Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia that has rallied behind South Africa's petition.
Boric, a leftist former student leader, has balanced condemnation of Hamas' attack with fierce criticism of Israel's military offensive, which has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count.

Topics: War on Gaza International Court of Justice (ICJ) Chile

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Fire at Russian oil refinery has caused deaths and injuries, officials say

Updated 52 min 50 sec ago
AP
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Fire at Russian oil refinery has caused deaths and injuries, officials say

  • Regional governor said the fire was not caused by a Ukrainian drone strike
Updated 52 min 50 sec ago
AP
MOSCOW: Fire broke out at an oil refinery in northwestern Russia on Sunday, resulting in deaths and injuries, local officials said.
The regional governor said the fire was not caused by a Ukrainian drone strike and investigators opened a criminal case on suspicion of negligence.
The fire near the city of Ukhta in Russia’s northwestern Komi Republic left at least three people injured, Komi’s emergencies ministry said. Regional investigators said that the fire also caused deaths, but did not specify how many. They did not say whether the fire had yet been extinguished.
“Today a fire occurred at an oil refinery facility in the city of Ukhta during scheduled technical work by a contractor, resulting in deaths and injuries,” the investigative department wrote on Telegram.
Investigators have opened a criminal case into possible negligence at the oil refinery.
Regional Gov. Vladimir Uyba said that the fire was not related to a drone strike. In recent months, Russian refineries and oil terminals have become priority targets of Ukrainian drone attacks, part of stepped-up assaults on Russian territory.
Local officials did not specify which company the refinery belongs to, but images published by the local emergencies ministry show the logo of oil giant Lukoil.

India’s Modi eyes election victory, top opponent back behind bars

Updated 02 June 2024
AFP
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India’s Modi eyes election victory, top opponent back behind bars

  • Arvind Kejriwal is among several opposition leaders under criminal investigation, with colleagues describing his arrest as a ‘political conspiracy’
  • Exit polls showed Modi was well on track to triumph, with the premier saying he was confident the people of India voted for him ‘in record numbers’
Updated 02 June 2024
AFP

NEW DELHI: A top opponent of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed Sunday to keep fighting “dictatorship” before he returned to jail Sunday, following elections widely expected to produce another landslide victory for the Hindu-nationalist leader.
Arvind Kejriwal is among several opposition leaders under criminal investigation, with colleagues describing his arrest the month before the general elections began in April as a “political conspiracy” orchestrated by Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The chief minister of the capital Delhi and a key leader in an alliance formed to compete against Modi, Kejriwal was detained in March over a long-running corruption probe.
He was later released and allowed to campaign but ordered to return to jail once voting ended.
“When power becomes dictatorship, then jail becomes a responsibility,” said Kejriwal, who promised to continue “fighting” from behind bars.
“I don’t know when I will return,” he told supporters in an emotional departure speech at his Aam Aadmi party headquarters.
“I don’t know what they will do to me... every drop of my blood is for the country.”
Kejriwal later returned to jail, his party spokesman told AFP.
Exit polls showed Modi was well on track to triumph, with the premier saying he was confident that “the people of India have voted in record numbers” to re-elect his government.
Results are expected Tuesday but supporters of Modi in his constituency of Varanasi — the spiritual capital of the Hindu faith — said they believed their leader’s win was secure.
“His government is coming back,” said Nand Lal, selling flowers outside a temple.
Voting in the seventh and final staggered round of the six-week poll ended on Saturday, held in brutally hot conditions across swaths of the country.
At least 33 polling staff died from heatstroke in Uttar Pradesh state alone, where temperatures hit 46.9 degrees Celsius (116.4 degrees Fahrenheit), election officials said.
India’s top court granted Kejriwal bail last month, giving a fleeting boost to the opposition’s quixotic campaign to oust Modi, but ordered him to return to custody after the election.
Kejriwal, 55, has been chief minister for nearly a decade and first came to office as a staunch anti-corruption crusader.
His government was accused of corruption when it implemented a policy to liberalize the sale of liquor in 2021 and give up a lucrative government stake in the sector.
The policy was withdrawn the following year but the resulting probe into the alleged corrupt allocation of licenses has since led to the jailing of two top Kejriwal allies.
“All of you, take care of yourselves,” Kejriwal, who has consistently denied wrongdoing and refused to relinquish his post, said earlier on social media.
“I will take care of you all in jail.”
Modi’s political opponents and international rights groups have long sounded the alarm about threats to India’s democracy.
US think tank Freedom House said this year the BJP had “increasingly used government institutions to target political opponents.”
Rahul Gandhi, the most prominent member of the opposition Congress party and scion of a dynasty that dominated Indian politics for decades, was convicted of criminal libel last year after a complaint by a member of Modi’s party.
His two-year prison sentence saw him disqualified from parliament until the verdict was suspended by a higher court and raised concerns over democratic norms in the world’s most populous country.
Hemant Soren, the former chief minister of the eastern state of Jharkhand, was also arrested in February in a separate corruption probe.
Kejriwal, Rahul Gandhi and Soren are all members of an opposition alliance composed of more than two dozen parties, but the bloc struggled to make inroads against Modi.

Topics: Modi India elections 2024

Women lead race as Mexicans vote for new president

Updated 02 June 2024
AFP
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Women lead race as Mexicans vote for new president

  • Nearly 100 million people were registered to vote in the world’s most populous Spanish-speaking country, home to 129 million people
Updated 02 June 2024
AFP

MEXICO CITY: Mexicans started voting Sunday in a presidential election dominated by two women — a historic first in a country with a history of gender-based violence and discrimination.
Ruling party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, a former Mexico City mayor and a scientist by training, had a 17 percentage point lead over her main opposition rival Xochitl Galvez on the eve of the vote.
The only man running, centrist Jorge Alvarez Maynez, was trailing far behind as a particularly violent campaign season marked by a string of candidate murders drew to an end.
It means that, barring a huge surprise, a woman is almost certain to break the highest political glass ceiling in Mexico, where around 10 women or girls are murdered every day.
That prospect motivates other women to succeed and to think “yes, you can,” said Blanca Sosa, a 31-year-old store worker in Mexico City.
She expects Sheinbaum to continue the “good things” done by outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, such as pensions for the elderly and an increased minimum wage.
Ricardo Sanchez, however, said he planned to vote for Galvez because of her “business vision.”
Lopez Obrador’s “policy of putting the poor first is to ruin us all so that we’re poor and then he gives to us,” the 55-year-old businessman said in the northern city of Monterrey.
Sheinbaum, 61, owes much of her popularity to Lopez Obrador, a fellow leftist and mentor who has an approval rating of more than 60 percent but is only allowed to serve one term.


Nearly 100 million people were registered to vote in the world’s most populous Spanish-speaking country, home to 129 million people.
Polls opened at 08:00 am (1300 GMT) in the southeastern state of Quintana Roo and some areas near the US border, with other regions in different time zones due to follow later.
Thousands of troops will be deployed to protect voters from ultra-violent drug cartels that have gone to extreme lengths to ensure their preferred candidates win.
More than two dozen aspiring local politicians have been murdered during the election process, according to official figures, in a nation where politics, crime and corruption are closely entangled.
In a sign of the difficulties of staging elections in cartel hotspots, voting was suspended in two southern municipalities because of violence, local authorities said Saturday.
“The fight against organized crime will be the biggest challenge for the next president,” said Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, a professor at George Mason University, in the United States.
Security was the weakest point of Lopez Obrador’s administration, she told AFP.
Sheinbaum has pledged to continue the outgoing president’s controversial “hugs not bullets” strategy of tackling crime at its roots.
Galvez has vowed a tougher approach to cartel-related violence, declaring “hugs for criminals are over.”
More than 450,000 people have been murdered and tens of thousands have gone missing since the government deployed the army to fight drug trafficking in 2006.
The next president will also have to manage delicate relations with the neighboring United States, in particular the vexed issues of cross-border drug smuggling and migration.


Addressing a cheering crowd of thousands at her closing campaign rally, Sheinbaum said Mexico was going to “make history” this weekend.
“I say to the young women, to all the women of Mexico — colleagues, friends, sisters, daughters, mothers and grandmothers — you are not alone,” she said.
The ruling party candidate had the backing of 53 percent of voters as campaigning drew to a close, according to a poll average compiled by research firm Oraculus.
Galvez, an outspoken senator and businesswoman with Indigenous roots, was second with 36 percent. Maynez, 38, had just 11 percent.
Galvez, 61, often evokes her childhood story of growing up in a poor, rural town in central Mexico where she says she sold candy to help her family.
“While you danced ballet at the age of 10, I had to work,” she told Sheinbaum, a former student activist who was born in the capital to a family of Jewish immigrants.
While millions of Mexicans have escaped poverty in recent years, more than a third still live below the poverty line in Latin America’s second-biggest economy.
As well as voting for a new president, Mexicans will choose members of Congress, several state governors and myriad local officials.
In total, more than 20,000 positions were being contested.

Topics: Mexico

Australian trust in US fell, but security alliance vital, says poll

Updated 02 June 2024
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Australian trust in US fell, but security alliance vital, says poll

Updated 02 June 2024
SYDNEY: An annual poll of how Australians view foreign relations showed trust in the United States has dipped, although most (83 percent) saw the US alliance as important for security, and 63 percent said it makes Australia safer from attack or pressure from China.
Cyberattacks from other nations were seen as the top threat (70 percent), while concern over potential conflicts over Taiwan (59 percent) and the South China Sea (57 percent) also loomed large.
Australia has boosted its military cooperation with alliance partner the United States, including in the AUKUS nuclear submarine deal, as government concern over the risk of conflict in the Indo-Pacific region rises.
The Lowy Institute poll, conducted annually by the foreign policy think-tank for 20 years, found Australians rank Japan highest of all countries in terms of trust (87 percent).
Trust in China to act responsibly in the world was low at 17 percent, which Lowy said was a sharp drop from 52 percent six years ago.
Levels of trust toward the United States dropped five points to 56 percent from a year ago.
“Australians are far less trusting of China and they are worried about the risk of war in our region. One constant is that they continue to see the alliance with the United States as important to Australia’s security,” said Lowy Institute executive director Michael Fullilove.
Most (83 percent) of 2000 people surveyed in March said the US alliance was important for Australia’s security.
Sixty-three percent said the US alliance makes Australia safer from attack or pressure from China, although three-quarters also believe the alliance makes it more likely Australia will be drawn into a future war in Asia.
Seventy-one percent said China would become a military threat to Australia in the next 20 years.
Asked about the 2024 US presidential election, 68 percent said they would prefer to see Joe Biden re-elected, compared with a third (29 percent) preferring Donald Trump.

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