WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday criticized Qatar and South Africa for accepting doctors from Cuba to battle the coronavirus, accusing the communist island of profiting from the pandemic.
Cuba’s globe-trotting doctors have long been a source of diplomatic soft power and pride for Havana, but Washington says the medical workers only benefit the government and has encouraged them to defect.
“We’ve noticed how the regime in Havana has taken advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to continue its exploitation of Cuban medical workers,” Pompeo told reporters.
“We applaud leaders in Brazil and in Ecuador and Bolivia and other countries which have refused to turn a blind eye to these abuses by the Cuban regime and ask all countries to do the same, including places like South Africa and Qatar,” he said.
“Governments accepting Cuban doctors must pay them directly. Otherwise, when they pay the regime, they are helping the Cuban government turn a profit on human trafficking.”
South Africa, which like Qatar has friendly relations with the United States, on Monday announced that 217 Cuban doctors had arrived in the country, which has the highest number of coronavirus infections in Africa.
Cuba has sent doctors to more than a dozen countries during the COVID-19 pandemic including hard-hit Italy. France has authorized Cuban teams to help in its overseas territories.
Cuba has made health care a societal pillar despite the poverty of the island, which has been subject to US sanctions for six decades.
Former president Barack Obama sought to reconcile with Cuba, calling the isolation policy a failure, and ended a program in which Washington encouraged Cuban doctors to defect and resettle in the United States — whose capitalist medical system offers exponentially higher incomes.
President Donald Trump’s administration has snapped back US pressure sharply and has imposed visa restrictions on Cuban officials involved in medical missions.
Cuba says it earned $6.3 billion from its medical dispatches in 2018 and used the proceeds to finance its own universal health care coverage.
One of the staunchest critics of the program is Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right ally of Trump, who kicked out 8,000 Cuban health workers as he took office.
Pompeo criticizes Qatar, S.Africa for taking Cuban doctors
https://arab.news/rfqz8
Pompeo criticizes Qatar, S.Africa for taking Cuban doctors
- Cuba’s globe-trotting doctors have long been a source of diplomatic soft power and pride for Havana
- US says medical workers only benefit the government and has encouraged them to defect
Muslim World League commits resources to help victims of Indonesia flooding
- Floods, landslides on Sumatra island killed more than 800 people and injured 4,200 others
- Al-Issa is in Jakarta this week for meetings with Indonesian officials, religious leaders
JAKARTA: The Muslim World League is ready to mobilize its resources to support relief efforts in Indonesia, its chief said on Friday during a visit to the Southeast Asian country, which was recently hit by its most devastating floods and landslides in decades.
At least 867 people were killed and more than 4,200 others injured after the disasters inundated three provinces on Indonesia’s Sumatra island in late November.
More than 121,000 homes were destroyed and more than 1,100 public infrastructure sites were severely affected in about 50 cities and regencies in the region, where emergency support has been limited due to the collapse of roads and bridges. About 1.1 million people were displaced at one point and for days communities were cut off from basic supplies, power and communication.
“I conveyed my sincere condolences to H.E. for the victims of the recent devastating floods and landslides across various regions of the Republic,” MWL Secretary-general Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulkarim Al-Issa said on X, following his meeting with President Prabowo Subianto in Jakarta.
“Furthermore, I confirmed the MWL’s commitment to mobilizing all its resources to provide relief and support to those impacted by this terrible calamity.”
Despite offers from several countries and international organizations, Indonesia is not accepting international humanitarian aid, as the central government has yet to declare the Sumatra floods a national emergency,
Al-Issa arrived in Jakarta on Wednesday at the invitation of the Indonesian government for meetings with officials and religious leaders.
On Saturday, he is scheduled to attend talks on interreligious harmony alongside Indonesian Religious Affairs Minister Nasaruddin Umar.
The MWL is an international non-government Islamic organization founded in Saudi Arabia in 1962. Its work is focused on promoting and clarifying the worldwide understanding of Islam, with headquarters in Makkah and offices around the world.
Din Syamsuddin, former chairman of Indonesia’s second-biggest Muslim group, Muhammadiyah, told Arab News that Al-Issa’s visit brought a “positive message” to promote global unity in the Muslim world.
“We see the visit as an appreciation for Indonesia as the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, where there is unity and harmony amid religious and ethnic diversity,” he said.
“In the context of the visit of the secretary-general of the Muslim World League, from Indonesia we would like to call on Muslims around the world to unite. (The MWL) has a strategic and central role to play for this purpose.”
