WASHINGTON – The US State Department on Tuesday blacklisted two Iranian officials from Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), accusing them of their involvement in human rights violations during 2019 and 2020 protests in Iran.
IRGC interrogators Ali Hemmatian and Masoud Safdari and their immediate family members are now ineligible for entry into the United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement adding: “We will continue to consider all appropriate tools to impose costs on those responsible for human rights violations and abuses in Iran.”
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US State Dept blacklists two Iranian officials over human rights violations
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US State Dept blacklists two Iranian officials over human rights violations
- IRGC interrogators Ali Hemmatian and Masoud Safdari, their immediate families ineligible to enter the United States
No Muslim representation in India’s cabinet as Modi starts third term
- No Muslim representation in India’s government as Modi starts third term
- Re-elected FM says will focus on border issues with China and Pakistan
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has retained most of the Cabinet ministers for his third term in office, signaling policy continuity, experts say, as they forecast a more conciliatory approach toward minorities.
Modi named the members of his government on Monday, one day after being sworn in following a mammoth general election, which ran from mid-April until June.
External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar remains in charge of India’s foreign policy, Amit Shah has stayed as home minister, Nirmala Sitharaman as finance minister, and Rajnath Singh as defense minister.
The first minister to comment after his re-appointment was Jaishankar, who told reporters on Tuesday that the “foreign policy of Modi 3.0” will focus on resolving border issues with China and, on finding a solution to the “issue of years-old cross-border terrorism” with Pakistan.
Nuclear-armed India and China share a 3,800 km border over which they fought a war in 1962. Since 2020, they have engaged in a military standoff on the border — the worst in five decades.
With Pakistan, also a nuclear-armed neighbor, India has fought three wars, including two over control of the disputed Kashmir region in the Himalayas.
“The message from the way the cabinet has been formed and the way Dr. Jaishankar continues as the foreign minister means that the previous approach of marginalizing Pakistan in the Indian foreign policy and standing up to China will continue,” Prof. Harsh V. Pant, vice president of the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, told Arab News.
“Also, the way India has been reactive on the global stage is again something that is again likely to continue, so India will continue to find its own space in the global order through active diplomacy as it has tried to do in the last one decade.”
Despite becoming the second Indian prime minister to win a third term, Modi had to rely on regional allies to form his Cabinet.
The BJP won 240 seats in the 543-member parliament, losing its absolute majority for the first time since 2014. It was able to form a government with the support of two coalition members — the Telugu Desam Party, a player in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, and the Janata Dal (United) party from the eastern state of Bihar.
Their National Democratic Alliance controls 293 seats, while 272 were needed to form the government.
None of the key ministries went to the coalition partners.
“Practically no portfolio has changed except that the civil aviation has gone to the TDP but by and large all the crucial posts are with the BJP,” said R. Jagannathan, editorial director of the Hindu nationalist Swarajya magazine.
“I think the coalition people cannot expect more than their proportionate share of seats in the coalition. They don’t have that many seats to demand so much more ... The coalition will not have an impact in terms of the ministries they control, they will have an impact behind the scenes. They will get the Modi government to do many things for their states, mainly Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.”
The Modi “3.0” Cabinet saw representation from across states and castes but not for the 200 million Muslim minority.
A champion of the Hindu majority, who make up 80 percent of India’s 1.4 billion population, Modi has been widely criticized for undermining India’s secular democracy with a majoritarian agenda, which has facilitated violent attacks by Hindu nationalists against minorities, particularly Muslims.
For Venkat Narayana, former professor of economics at the Kakatiya University Telangana state, the lack of Muslim representation in Modi’s government was a “signal that he would continue with his non-secular approach and his anti-minority politics remain as pronounced as in the previous two terms.”
But since the 2024 election has been seen as a comeback of India’s opposition with 232 parliament seats, the prime minister will have to be “more conciliatory and democratic this time,” Narayana said.
“He can’t afford to shut the opposition completely now. He cannot run the government with the hardcore agenda otherwise the government will collapse.”
Prof. Ajay Gudavarthy from the Centre for Political Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi told Arab News that the BJP’s alliance partner TDP has “a fair share of Muslim backing,” so there must be an agreement regarding that.
“The BJP this time might not go for some of the radical agendas like mob lynching which was followed in the previous terms. But they will follow a more cultural majoritarian agenda,” he said.
“Let’s wait and watch.”
Suspected militant killed, seven wounded in Kashmir clashes
SRINAGAR: A suspected militant was killed and seven security personnel were wounded in clashes in Indian-administered Kashmir, police said Wednesday.
The first incident occurred late Tuesday night in Hiranagar, a village near the frontier with Pakistan which, like India, claims the Himalayan region in full.
Security forces rushed to the border village, with a man killed in the resulting gunfight who police believed had crossed over from the Pakistan side.
“This appears to be a fresh infiltration in which one terrorist was killed and the search for one more is ongoing,” Anand Jain, a top police officer told reporters.
Hours later, suspected rebels lobbed grenades and fired at an army checkpoint in the remote Doda area around 100 kilometers (60 miles) to the north, leaving six soldiers and a police officer wounded.
Six of the wounded were transported to hospital for treatment, police senior superintendent Javaid Iqbal told AFP.
“A search operation is on in the forest area,” he added.
The incidents came days after a gunman opened fire bullets on a bus full of Indian pilgrims returning from a Hindu shrine in the southern Kashmir district of Reasi, leaving nine dead and dozens wounded.
Survivors at a hospital told AFP on Tuesday that the attacker continued firing on the bus for several minutes after it tumbled down into a ravine.
Army special forces and police have launched a manhunt in a vast forested area and released a sketch of the attacker, announcing a reward of $24,000 for information leading to his location.
India has around 500,000 soldiers permanently deployed in Kashmir.
The three back-to-back incidents follow an uptick in militant attacks in the southern Hindu-dominated areas of the Muslim-majority territory.
Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, and the rivals have fought three wars over control of the territory.
Since 1989 rebel groups have waged a violent insurgency, demanding independence for Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan.
The conflict has left tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers, and rebels dead.
Clashes between rebels and soldiers have drastically reduced since 2019, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government revoked the limited constitutional autonomy of the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir.
India regularly accuses Pakistan of supporting and arming the rebels, a charge Islamabad denies.
8 people with possible Daesh ties arrested in US on immigration violations
- Individuals from Tajikistan entered the country last spring and passed through the US government’s screening process
- FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a statement confirming the immigration-related arrests of “several non-citizens”
WASHINGTON: Eight people from Tajikistan with suspected ties to the Daesh group have been arrested in the United States in recent days, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.
The arrests took place in New York, Philadelphia and Los Angeles and the individuals, who entered the US through the southern border, are being held on immigration violations, said the people, who were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation by name and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The nature of their suspected connections to Daesh was not immediately clear, but the individuals were being tracked by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, or JTTF. They were in the custody of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which made the arrests while working with the JTTF, pending proceedings to remove them from the country.
The individuals from Tajikistan entered the country last spring and passed through the US government’s screening process without turning up information that would have identified them as potential terrorism-related concerns, said one of the people familiar with the matter.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a statement confirming the immigration-related arrests of “several non-citizens” but did not detail specifics. The agencies noted that the US has been in a “heightened threat environment.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray has said the US is facing accelerating threats from homegrown violent extremists as well as foreign terrorist organizations, particularly in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.
He said at one recent congressional hearing that officials were “concerned about the terrorism implications from potential targeting of vulnerabilities at the border.” The Biden administration in August said that it had detected and stopped a network attempting to smuggle people from Uzbekistan into the US and that at least one member of the network had links to a foreign terrorist group.
“The FBI and DHS will continue working around the clock with our partners to identify, investigate, and disrupt potential threats to national security,” the agencies said.
Dozens arrested in new pro-Palestinian protests at University of California, Los Angeles
- Protest camps have sprung up on university campuses across the US and in Europe as students demand their universities stop doing business with Israel or companies that support its war efforts
LOS ANGELES: Police thwarted attempts by pro-Palestinian demonstrators to set up a new encampment at the University of California, Los Angeles, where officers cleared a previous camp this spring after it was attacked by counterprotesters.
Officers arrested 27 people late Monday during the demonstration, Rick Braziel, UCLA associate vice chancellor for campus safety, said in a statement.
The individuals were cited for willful disruption of university operations and one for interfering with an officer, according to UCLA police. They were issued 14-day orders to stay away from UCLA and then released.
Any student arrested will face disciplinary action, which could include being banned from campus and not being able to take finals or participate in commencement ceremonies, Braziel said.
The demonstrators repeatedly tried to set up tents, canopies and barriers as they moved to various locations, disrupting nearby final exams. The group also damaged a fountain, spray-painted brick walkways, tampered with fire safety equipment, damaged patio furniture, stripped wire from electrical fixtures and vandalized vehicles, police said.
During the demonstration, there were also attacks that led to six UCLA police being injured, as well as a security guard left bleeding from the head after being struck, according to Braziel.
“Simply put, these acts of non-peaceful protest are abhorrent and cannot continue,” Braziel said in the statement.
Protest camps have sprung up on university campuses across the US and in Europe as students demand their universities stop doing business with Israel or companies that support its war efforts. Organizers have sought to amplify calls to end Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, which they describe as a genocide against the Palestinians.
UCLA has been repeatedly roiled by protests and the university administration’s handling of the situation.
At one point, a pro-Palestinian encampment was attacked by counterprotesters, with no immediate response from police, and dozens were then arrested as the camp was cleared. The episode led to reassignment of the campus police chief and creation of a new campus safety office. A subsequent attempt to set up a new camp was also blocked.
Monday’s protest comes just days before University of California regents are scheduled to meet at UCLA and this coming weekend’s commencement ceremonies.
EU urged to welcome skilled Russians to ‘bleed’ Putin regime
- Nearly 80 percent of respondents left Russia after 2014, the year Putin annexed Crimea from Ukraine
PARIS: A group of exiled Kremlin critics on Tuesday urged EU countries to do more to welcome Russians fleeing Vladimir Putin’s regime, arguing that a shortage of skilled workers would deal a blow to the country’s war-time economy.
According to some estimates, up to one million people have fled Russia since Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022 but some of them have begun returning back, discouraged by the scarcity of available jobs and difficulties getting visas and long-term residence permits, in countries like Turkiye but also in the European Union.
“One less engineer is one less missile flying in the direction of Ukraine,” Russian opposition politician and former lawmaker Dmitry Gudkov said in Paris.
Speaking at the French Institute of International Relations, Gudkov unveiled a study of the Russian diaspora in several EU member states, one of the first attempts to study the Ukraine war-triggered exodus.
Conducted by researchers associated with the University of Nicosia on behalf of a new think tank co-established by Gudkov and the economist Vladislav Inozemtsev, the study is based on a survey of over 3,200 Russians living in France, Germany, Poland and Cyprus.
Nearly 80 percent of respondents left Russia after 2014, the year Putin annexed Crimea from Ukraine. Of them, 44 percent fled after the full-scale invasion.
As part of policy recommendations, the study called for a broad program of “economic migration” from Russia, adding that most Russians who have fled the country were well-educated “Russian Europeans” supporting Western values.
“The strategy to undermine the Putin regime should include orchestrated ‘bleeding’: stimulating the outflow of qualified specialists and money from Russia unrelated to the war,” the study said.
Authorities in Moscow have acknowledged that labor shortages have become a serious problem, threatening economic growth.
Inozemtsev said more should be done, arguing that welcoming skilled Russians and their financial resources could be a more effective blow against the Kremlin than multiple rounds of Western sanctions that have so far failed to halt Russia’s war machine.
“Even we have been surprised by the qualifications of those who have left,” Inozemtsev said.
Citing figures from 2022, the study said the average monthly salary of Russian immigrants in Cyprus stood at more than 5,480 euros ($5,880), compared with the average monthly salary of 2,248 euros for native Cypriots.
Mindful of the rise of anti-immigrant sentiments across Europe, the study argued that Russian exiles could integrate into European societies relatively easily and would not be a burden on social security systems.
Several hundred thousand Russians could also provide an “additional boost” to slow-growing European economies, the study said, adding that in the future the exiles could help promote “reconciliation between Europe and Russia.”
EU nations, especially France and Germany, have welcomed anti-Kremlin Russians since the start of the invasion. But Gudkov said problems persisted and EU governments were concerned that new arrivals could pose a security risk.
Russian and Belarusian citizens, who were initially approved to serve as volunteers for the Olympic Games in Paris, were told by organizers in May that they had not passed security checks.
Ordinary Russians have also been affected by the fallout of sanctions.
Gudkov’s father Gennady Gudkov, himself a prominent Kremlin critic now based in France, said he struggled to open a bank account despite receiving political asylum.
Dmitry Gudkov said many Russian exiles were struggling and it was no surprise that some choose to go back to Russia.
“It is very hard to live like this,” he said.
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