Indian opposition, civil society call out government’s silence on Israel’s war on Gaza

Indian students march in solidarity with Palestine at Delhi University on May 23, 2025. (AISA)
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Updated 14 June 2025
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Indian opposition, civil society call out government’s silence on Israel’s war on Gaza

  • India among 19 countries to abstain from backing UN resolution on Gaza ceasefire
  • Indian government has, in recent years, moved away from historical support for Palestine

NEW DELHI: India’s main opposition party and civil society members are demanding the government break its silence on Israel’s war crimes against Palestinians, after New Delhi abstained from voting on a UN resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.

While 149 countries at the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly backed the resolution demanding aid access and an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in the besieged enclave on Thursday, India was among 19 countries that abstained, with 12 others voting against it.

India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Parvathaneni Harish said the abstention was based on “the belief that there is no other way to resolve conflicts but through dialogue and diplomacy,” adding that “a joint effort should be directed towards bringing the two sides closer.”

The government’s vote sparked an outcry in India, as politicians and members of civil society urged the government to return to its traditional foreign policy of supporting Palestine.

“This is a tragic reversal of our anti-colonial legacy. How can we, as a nation, just abandon the principles of our constitution, and the values of our freedom struggle that led the way for an international arena based on peace and humanity?” Priyanka Gandhi, MP and senior leader of the Congress Party, told Arab News on Saturday.

The move to abstain on the UN resolution was “shameful and disappointing,” she said, adding: “There is no justification for this. True global leadership demands the courage to defend justice, India has shown this courage unfailingly in the past.”

Many years before the establishment of Israel, Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of India’s liberation movement against British rule, had opposed a Jewish nation-state in Palestine, deeming it “inhumane.” For decades, other Indian leaders also viewed Palestinian statehood as part of the country’s foreign policy.

That support has only waned recently, with the current government forging partnerships with Tel Aviv and largely remaining silent in the wake of Israel’s deadly siege on Gaza. More than 55,000 Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing onslaught that began in October 2023, while more than 128,000 others have been injured and scores of others put in danger of starvation by Israel’s daily attacks and aid blockades.

“A humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding. Has India abandoned its principled stand against war, against genocide, and for justice?” KC Venugopal, MP and general secretary of the Congress party, told Arab News.

“India has long been a principled voice for ceasefire, peace, and dialogue in the Middle East. Rooted in our legacy of non-alignment and moral diplomacy, India has historically championed the cause of justice and humanitarian values in global conflicts,” he said.

“At a time when the region is witnessing unspeakable violence, humanitarian collapse, and growing instability, India cannot afford to remain silent or passive.”

Apoorvanand Jha, a professor at the University of Delhi, said that India “has chosen to stand behind bullies” by choosing to abstain from the UN vote.

“It’s very clear that India has lost its moral standing … I definitely demand the government continue with traditional Indian foreign policy, which was to stand with Palestine, stand against aggression in any form, and that should lead it to oppose Israel’s aggressive stance in the matter of Palestine,” Jha told Arab News.

“It has to tell Israel. It has to take a definite stand in the UN and elsewhere that it doesn’t support Israel (and) Israel’s aggression.”


‘Everybody is tired’ of war in Ukraine, UN migration chief says

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‘Everybody is tired’ of war in Ukraine, UN migration chief says

  • Russia’s invasion has triggered Europe’s biggest refugee crisis this century, with 5.6 million Ukrainian refugees globally and 3.8 million uprooted in their country

ROME: Fatigue over the war in Ukraine and US-led foreign aid cuts are jeopardizing efforts to support people fleeing hardship, the head of the UN migration agency warned in an interview on Friday. International Organization for Migration (IOM) Director General Amy Pope was speaking a day after a Ukraine recovery conference in Rome mobilized over €10 billion ($11.69 billion) for the country.

“It’s three-and-a-half years into the conflict. I think it’s fair to say that everybody is tired, and we hear that even from Ukrainians who’ve been experiencing the ongoing attacks in their cities and often have been displaced multiple times,” she said.

“The response to it, though, has to be peace, because ultimately, without peace, there won’t be an end, not only to the funding request, but also to the support for the Ukrainian people.”

Russia’s invasion has triggered Europe’s biggest refugee this century, with 5.6 million Ukrainian refugees globally and 3.8 million uprooted in their country, according to UN data. The IOM and other UN agencies are hampered by major funding shortages as US President Donald Trump slashes foreign aid and European donors like Britain shift funds from development to defense.

US decisions will give the IOM a $1 billion shortfall this year, Pope said, saying budget reductions should be phased gradually or else Trump and others risk stoking even worse migration crises.

“It doesn’t work to have provided assistance and then just walk away and leave nothing. And what we see happening when support falls is that people move again … So (the cuts) can ultimately have a backlash,” she said.

Warning for US, praise for Italy

Pope, 51, is the first woman to lead the IOM and a former adviser to the Obama and Biden administrations who is now working with Trump’s White House on so-called “self-deportations.”

She said the IOM has decades of experience of such programs in Europe and they take time to implement, especially to prepare returnees and check they are going voluntarily.

“That doesn’t always move as quickly as governments would like,” Pope said.

Asked whether the IOM would stop working with the US if the returns turned out to be forced, she said: “We’ve made clear to them what our standards are, and as with every member state, we outline what we can do and what we can’t do, and they understand that, and it is part of the deal.”

After Rome, Pope was on her way to Washington to meet with Trump administration officials and US lawmakers. Turning to Europe, she praised Italy’s decision to increase migrant work permits to nearly 500,000 for 2026-2028, coming from a right-wing government otherwise pursuing tough border policies.

“What Italy is doing is taking a realistic look at what labor they need, what skills they need, what talent they need. And then they’re designing a system to allow people to come in through a safe and legal channel,” Pope said.


Greece to adopt legislation against migrant ‘invasion’ from Libya

Updated 11 July 2025
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Greece to adopt legislation against migrant ‘invasion’ from Libya

  • Conservative lawmakers are expected to approve emergency legislation enforcing the temporary ban
  • Proposed law to allow authorities to detain asylum seekers in camps for up to 18 months

ATHENS: Greece on Friday was to enforce a three-month freeze on asylum claims from migrants arriving by boat from North Africa, to stem a surge from Libya that the government has called an “invasion.”

Conservative lawmakers, who hold a parliamentary majority, are expected to approve emergency legislation enforcing the temporary ban, allowing authorities to detain asylum seekers in camps for up to 18 months.

“We have made the difficult but absolutely necessary decision to temporarily suspend the examination process of asylum applications for those arriving by sea from North African countries,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a statement to German tabloid Bild on Friday.

“This decision sends a clear message, leaving no room for misinterpretation, to human trafficking networks: Greece is not an open transit route. The journey is dangerous, the outcome uncertain, and the money paid to smugglers ultimately wasted,” he said.

Greece’s migration ministry says over 14,000 migrants have reached the country this year, including over 2,000 in recent days from Libya.

“Greece cannot have boats totaling 1,000 people a day,” Migration Minister Thanos Plevris told Skai TV, adding that the country will undertake a “draconian revision” of how it deals with migrants.

Plevris – formerly a member of the far-right LAOS party and now part of Mitsotakis’s New Democracy party – has called the recent influx an “invasion from North Africa.”

The move has been criticized by rights groups as a violation of international and EU law, and opposition parties have called it unconstitutional.

Noting an “exceptional” situation, European Commission migration spokesperson Markus Lammert said on Thursday: “We are in close contact with the Greek authorities to obtain necessary information on these measures.”

Greece took similar steps in 2020 during a migration surge at its land border with Turkiye.

To manage the influx, the government could reopen camps built after the 2015 migration crisis, government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said this week.

Mitsotakis also told parliament that it would build up to two additional camps on the island of Crete.


Kremlin says it awaits ‘major statement’ from Trump

Updated 11 July 2025
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Kremlin says it awaits ‘major statement’ from Trump

  • Trump has expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the Russia-Ukraine conflict

MOSCOW: Russia is awaiting the “major statement” that US President Donald Trump announced he would deliver on Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

Trump told NBC News on Thursday that he will make a “major statement” on Russia on Monday, without elaborating what it will be about.

In recent days, Trump has expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin over the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

When asked about the new NATO weapons deliveries to Ukraine, Peskov called it “just business” as Kyiv had already been receiving weapons prior to this development.


Rubio meets China’s Wang in Malaysia amid trade tension

Updated 11 July 2025
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Rubio meets China’s Wang in Malaysia amid trade tension

  • Washington’s top diplomat is in Malaysia on his first trip to Asia since taking office
  • Marco Rubio’s visit is part of an effort to renew US focus on the Indo-Pacific region

KUALA LUMPUR: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, their first in-person meeting at a time of simmering trade tensions between the two major powers.

Washington’s top diplomat is in Malaysia on his first trip to Asia since taking office, attending the East Asia Summit and ASEAN Regional Forum alongside counterparts from Japan, China, South Korea, Russia, Australia, India, the European Union and Southeast Asian states.

His meeting with Wang comes amid escalating friction globally over US President Donald Trump’s tariffs offensive, with China this week warning the United States against reinstating hefty levies on its goods next month.

Beijing has also threatened to retaliate against nations that strike deals with the United States to cut China out of supply chains. Rubio’s visit is part of an effort to renew US focus on the Indo-Pacific region and look beyond conflicts in the Middle East and Europe that have consumed much of the Trump administration’s attention.

But that has been overshadowed by this week’s announcement of steep US tariffs on many Asian countries and US allies that include 25 percent on Japan, South Korea and Malaysia, 32 percent for Indonesia, 36 percent for Thailand and Cambodia and 40 percent on Myanmar and Laos.

Analysts said Rubio would be looking to press the case that the United States remains a better partner than China, Washington’s main strategic rival, during the visit. The State Department said Rubio met counterparts of Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia on Friday.

A day earlier, he told Southeast Asian foreign ministers the Indo-Pacific remained a focal point of US foreign policy.

China, initially singled out with tariffs exceeding 100 percent, has until August 12 to reach a deal with the White House to keep Trump from reinstating additional import curbs imposed during tit-for-tat tariff exchanges in April and May.

‘Bullying behavior’

China’s Wang has been fierce in his criticism of the United States in Kuala Lumpur and told Malaysia’s foreign minister the US tariffs were “typical unilateral bullying behavior” that no country should support or agree with, according to remarks released by Beijing on Friday.

He told Thailand’s foreign minister the tariffs had been abused and “undermined the free trade system, and interfered with the stability of the global production and supply chain.”

During a meeting with his Cambodian counterpart, he said the US levies were an attempt to deprive Southeast Asian countries of their legitimate right to development.

“We believe that Southeast Asian countries have the ability to cope with complex situations, adhere to principled positions, and safeguard their own interests,” Wang said, according to China’s foreign ministry.

The foreign secretary of US ally the Philippines said on Friday President Ferdinand Marcos Jr would meet Trump in Washington this month and discussions would include the increase in the US tariff on its former colony.

Rubio told reporters on Thursday he would also likely raise with Wang US concerns over China’s support for Russia in its war against Ukraine.

“The Chinese clearly have been supportive of the Russian effort and I think that generally, they’ve been willing to help them as much as they can without getting caught,” he said.

Rubio met together with Japanese foreign minister and South Korea’s first vice foreign minister in Malaysia on Friday, at a time of concerns about the tariffs.

According to a US State Department statement, they discussed regional security and a strengthening of their “indispensable trilateral partnership” including security and resilience of critical technologies and supply chains, energy, trusted digital infrastructure, and shipbuilding.


Pakistani father kills daughter over TikTok account: police

Updated 11 July 2025
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Pakistani father kills daughter over TikTok account: police

  • TikTok is wildly popular in Pakistan, in part because of its accessibility to a population with low literacy levels
  • Pakistani women have found both audience and income on the app, which is rare in the country

RAWALPINDI: Pakistan police on Friday said a father shot dead his daughter after she refused to delete her account on popular video-sharing app TikTok.

In the Muslim-majority country, women can be subjected to violence by family members for not following strict rules on how to behave in public, including in online spaces.

“The girl’s father had asked her to delete her TikTok account. On refusal, he killed her,” a police spokesperson said.

According to a police report shared with AFP, investigators said the father killed his 16-year-old daughter on Tuesday “for honor.” He was subsequently arrested.

The victim’s family initially tried to “portray the murder as a suicide” according to police in the city of Rawalpindi, where the attack happened, next to the capital Islamabad.

Last month, a 17-year-old girl and TikTok influencer with hundreds of thousands of online followers was killed at home by a man whose advances she had refused.

Sana Yousaf had racked up more than a million followers on social media accounts including TikTok, where she shared videos of her favorite cafes, skincare products, and traditional outfits.

TikTok is wildly popular in Pakistan, in part because of its accessibility to a population with low literacy levels.

Women have found both audience and income on the app, which is rare in a country where fewer than a quarter of the women participate in the formal economy.

However, only 30 percent of women in Pakistan own a smartphone compared to twice as many men (58 percent), the largest gap in the world, according to the Mobile Gender Gap Report of 2025.

Pakistani telecommunications authorities have repeatedly blocked or threatened to block the app over what it calls “immoral behavior,” amid backlash against LGBTQ and sexual content.

In southwestern Balochistan, where tribal law governs many rural areas, a man confessed to orchestrating the murder of his 14-year-old daughter earlier this year over TikTok videos that he said compromised her “honor.”