How Saudi Arabia helped ISIS take over the north of Iraq

How far is Saudi Arabia complicit in the Isis takeover of much of northern Iraq, and is it stoking an escalating Sunni-Shia conflict across the Islamic world?

Some time before 9/11, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, once the powerful Saudi ambassador in Washington and head of Saudi intelligence until a few months ago, had a revealing and ominous conversation with the head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove. Prince Bandar told him: "The time is not far off in the Middle East, Richard, when it will be literally 'God help the Shia'. More than a billion Sunnis have simply had enough of them."

The fatal moment predicted by Prince Bandar may now have come for many Shia, with Saudi Arabia playing an important role in bringing it about by supporting the anti-Shia jihad in Iraq and Syria.

Since the capture of Mosul by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) on 10 June, Shia women and children have been killed in villages south of Kirkuk, and Shia air force cadets machine-gunned and buried in mass graves near Tikrit.

In Mosul, Shia shrines and mosques have been blown up, and in the nearby Shia Turkoman city of Tal Afar 4,000 houses have been taken over by Isis fighters as "spoils of war".

Simply to be identified as Shia or a related sect, such as the Alawites, in Sunni rebel-held parts of Iraq and Syria today, has become as dangerous as being a Jew was in Nazi-controlled parts of Europe in 1940.

There is no doubt about the accuracy of the quote by Prince Bandar, secretary-general of the Saudi National Security Council from 2005 and head of General Intelligence between 2012 and 2014, the crucial two years when al-Qa'ida-type jihadis took over the Sunni-armed opposition in Iraq and Syria. Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute last week, Dearlove, who headed MI6 from 1999 to 2004, emphasised the significance of Prince Bandar's words, saying that they constituted "a chilling comment that I remember very well indeed".

He does not doubt that substantial and sustained funding from private donors in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to which the authorities may have turned a blind eye, has played a central role in the Isis surge into Sunni areas of Iraq./blockquote>

He said: "Such things simply do not happen spontaneously." This sounds realistic since the tribal and communal leadership in Sunni majority provinces is much beholden to Saudi and Gulf paymasters, and would be unlikely to cooperate with Isis without their consent.

Dearlove's explosive revelation about the prediction of a day of reckoning for the Shia by Prince Bandar, and the former head of MI6's view that Saudi Arabia is involved in the Isis-led Sunni rebellion, has attracted surprisingly little attention.

Coverage of Dearlove's speech focused instead on his main theme that the threat from Isis to the West is being exaggerated because, unlike Bin Laden's al-Qa'ida, it is absorbed in a new conflict that "is essentially Muslim on Muslim".

Unfortunately, Christians in areas captured by Isis are finding this is not true, as their churches are desecrated and they are forced to flee. A difference between al-Qa'ida and Isis is that the latter is much better organised; if it does attack Western targets the results are likely to be devastating.

The forecast by Prince Bandar, who was at the heart of Saudi security policy for more than three decades, that the 100 million Shia in the Middle East face disaster at the hands of the Sunni majority, will convince many Shia that they are the victims of a Saudi-led campaign to crush them.

"The Shia in general are getting very frightened after what happened in northern Iraq," said an Iraqi commentator, who did not want his name published. Shia see the threat as not only military but stemming from the expanded influence over mainstream Sunni Islam of Wahhabism, the puritanical and intolerant version of Islam espoused by Saudi Arabia that condemns Shia and other Islamic sects as non-Muslim apostates and polytheists.

Dearlove says that he has no inside knowledge obtained since he retired as head of MI6 10 years ago to become Master of Pembroke College in Cambridge.

But, drawing on past experience, he sees Saudi strategic thinking as being shaped by two deep-seated beliefs or attitudes. First, they are convinced that there "can be no legitimate or admissible challenge to the Islamic purity of their Wahhabi credentials as guardians of Islam's holiest shrines". But, perhaps more significantly given the deepening Sunni-Shia confrontation, the Saudi belief that they possess a monopoly of Islamic truth leads them to be "deeply attracted towards any militancy which can effectively challenge Shia-dom".

Western governments traditionally play down the connection between Saudi Arabia and its Wahhabist faith, on the one hand, and jihadism, whether of the variety espoused by Osama bin Laden and al-Qa'ida or by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's Isis. There is nothing conspiratorial or secret about these links: 15 out of 19 of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis, as was Bin Laden and most of the private donors who funded the operation.

The difference between al-Qa'ida and Isis can be overstated: when Bin Laden was killed by United States forces in 2011, al-Baghdadi released a statement eulogising him, and Isis pledged to launch 100 attacks in revenge for his death.

But there has always been a second theme to Saudi policy towards al-Qa'ida type jihadis, contradicting Prince Bandar's approach and seeing jihadis as a mortal threat to the Kingdom. Dearlove illustrates this attitude by relating how, soon after 9/11, he visited the Saudi capital Riyadh with Tony Blair.

He remembers the then head of Saudi General Intelligence "literally shouting at me across his office: '9/11 is a mere pinprick on the West. In the medium term, it is nothing more than a series of personal tragedies. What these terrorists want is to destroy the House of Saud and remake the Middle East.'" In the event, Saudi Arabia adopted both policies, encouraging the jihadis as a useful tool of Saudi anti-Shia influence abroad but suppressing them at home as a threat to the status quo. It is this dual policy that has fallen apart over the last year.

Saudi sympathy for anti-Shia "militancy" is identified in leaked US official documents. The then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote in December 2009 in a cable released by Wikileaks that "Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qa'ida, the Taliban, LeT [Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan] and other terrorist groups."

She said that, in so far as Saudi Arabia did act against al-Qa'ida, it was as a domestic threat and not because of its activities abroad. This policy may now be changing with the dismissal of Prince Bandar as head of intelligence this year. But the change is very recent, still ambivalent and may be too late: it was only last week that a Saudi prince said he would no longer fund a satellite television station notorious for its anti-Shia bias based in Egypt.

The problem for the Saudis is that their attempts since Bandar lost his job to create an anti-Maliki and anti-Assad Sunni constituency which is simultaneously against al-Qa'ida and its clones have failed.

By seeking to weaken Maliki and Assad in the interest of a more moderate Sunni faction, Saudi Arabia and its allies are in practice playing into the hands of Isis which is swiftly gaining full control of the Sunni opposition in Syria and Iraq. In Mosul, as happened previously in its Syrian capital Raqqa, potential critics and opponents are disarmed, forced to swear allegiance to the new caliphate and killed if they resist. The West may have to pay a price for its alliance with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf monarchies, which have always found Sunni jihadism more attractive than democracy. A striking example of double standards by the western powers was the Saudi-backed suppression of peaceful democratic protests by the Shia majority in Bahrain in March 2011.

Some 1,500 Saudi troops were sent across the causeway to the island kingdom as the demonstrations were ended with great brutality and Shia mosques and shrines were destroyed.

An alibi used by the US and Britain is that the Sunni al-Khalifa royal family in Bahrain is pursuing dialogue and reform. But this excuse looked thin last week as Bahrain expelled a top US diplomat, the assistant secretary of state for human rights Tom Malinowksi, for meeting leaders of the main Shia opposition party al-Wifaq. Mr Malinowski tweeted that the Bahrain government's action was "not about me but about undermining dialogue".

Western powers and their regional allies have largely escaped criticism for their role in reigniting the war in Iraq. Publicly and privately, they have blamed the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for persecuting and marginalising the Sunni minority, so provoking them into supporting the Isis-led revolt. There is much truth in this, but it is by no means the whole story. Maliki did enough to enrage the Sunni, partly because he wanted to frighten Shia voters into supporting him in the 30 April election by claiming to be the Shia community's protector against Sunni counter-revolution.

But for all his gargantuan mistakes, Maliki's failings are not the reason why the Iraqi state is disintegrating. What destabilised Iraq from 2011 on was the revolt of the Sunni in Syria and the takeover of that revolt by jihadis, who were often sponsored by donors in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates. Again and again Iraqi politicians warned that by not seeking to close down the civil war in Syria, Western leaders were making it inevitable that the conflict in Iraq would restart. "I guess they just didn't believe us and were fixated on getting rid of [President Bashar al-] Assad," said an Iraqi leader in Baghdad last week.

Of course, US and British politicians and diplomats would argue that they were in no position to bring an end to the Syrian conflict. But this is misleading. By insisting that peace negotiations must be about the departure of Assad from power, something that was never going to happen since Assad held most of the cities in the country and his troops were advancing, the US and Britain made sure the war would continue.

The chief beneficiary is Isis which over the last two weeks has been mopping up the last opposition to its rule in eastern Syria. The Kurds in the north and the official al-Qa'ida representative, Jabhat al-Nusra, are faltering under the impact of Isis forces high in morale and using tanks and artillery captured from the Iraqi army. It is also, without the rest of the world taking notice, taking over many of the Syrian oil wells that it did not already control.

Saudi Arabia has created a Frankenstein's monster over which it is rapidly losing control. The same is true of its allies such as Turkey which has been a vital back-base for Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra by keeping the 510-mile-long Turkish-Syrian border open. As Kurdish-held border crossings fall to Isis, Turkey will find it has a new neighbour of extraordinary violence, and one deeply ungrateful for past favours from the Turkish intelligence service.

As for Saudi Arabia, it may come to regret its support for the Sunni revolts in Syria and Iraq as jihadi social media begins to speak of the House of Saud as its next target. It is the unnamed head of Saudi General Intelligence quoted by Dearlove after 9/11 who is turning out to have analysed the potential threat to Saudi Arabia correctly and not Prince Bandar, which may explain why the latter was sacked earlier this year.

Nor is this the only point on which Prince Bandar was dangerously mistaken. The rise of Isis is bad news for the Shia of Iraq but it is worse news for the Sunni whose leadership has been ceded to a pathologically bloodthirsty and intolerant movement, a sort of Islamic Khmer Rouge, which has no aim but war without end.

The Sunni caliphate rules a large, impoverished and isolated area from which people are fleeing. Several million Sunni in and around Baghdad are vulnerable to attack and 255 Sunni prisoners have already been massacred. In the long term, Isis cannot win, but its mix of fanaticism and good organisation makes it difficult to dislodge.

"God help the Shia," said Prince Bandar, but, partly thanks to him, the shattered Sunni communities of Iraq and Syria may need divine help even more than the Shia.

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Music: Lily Allen - URL Badman

Pakistan Government Accused Of Tolerating Persecution Of Minorities

Government of Pakistan accused of tolerating persecution of minorities in Pakistan.

According to an international news agency the Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif’s government goes on with committing and tolerate the persecution of Ahmadis, Christians, Hindus, and Shiites. They assert that the government’s imposition of the oppressive blasphemy laws has privileged the religious fanatics.

The news agency claims that under these blasphemy laws 40 Pakistanis are currently jailed — predominantly anti-Ahmadi laws also seriously animate dangers to the religious-freedom abuses while providing opportunities to the religious extremists. They continue to criticise the Pakistani Government of giving a free hand to the murderer Shahbaz Bhatti, a Pakistani Christian and former Pakistani minister for interfaith harmony whereas the government has failed to bring his killers to justice.

They went on to say that the United States should go on to raise concerns about these killing of the religious minorities. The administration should also follow recommendations provided in the House-passed fiscal-year 2015 budget to prioritize any necessary foreign-aid reductions to target those countries that abuse religious freedoms.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) – an independent government organization that supervises religious freedom abroad. USCIRF and members of the House of Representatives have recommended that all three of these countries — China, Iran, and Pakistan — be listed by the U.S. State Department as Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) for religious freedom because of these and other atrocities. The State Department has answered our calls on China and Iran in the past; it is time that Secretary John Kerry does the same regarding Pakistan. Secretary Kerry must press for Pakistani government leaders to protect religious freedom to stem its frightening spiral toward extremist violence and instability. USCIRF has recommended this designation, and congressional leaders have requested it. The Obama administration must improve and make protection religious freedom a pillar of its foreign policy. As the United States turns a blind eye, so too does the world. We must open our eyes now, act accordingly and show these governments and the world that these acts will not stand.

- See more at: http://www.christiansinpakistan.com/pakistan-government-accused-of-tolerating-persecution-of-minorities/#sthash.jW7x9NKL.dpuf

Pakistan: Five Christian Families Rescued From Slavery Of A Muslim Brick-Kiln Owner

Five Christian families rescued from the slavery of a Muslim brick kiln owner.

According to details, five Christian families have been set free after being served as slaves for more than two decades in a Muslim-run brick kiln in Wazirabad in Punjab province of Pakistan. A Pakistani NGO Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement was involved in this rescue operation. The Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement said it provided two vehicles for the May 6 raids at the brick. The Director of this advocacy group told,” a total of eight Christians were found working as slaves in the area, representing five families. Some were detained around the brick kiln itself; others at a nearby location linked to the kiln’s owner, Gul Nawaz Cheema. Our staff accompanied the bailiffs to two separate locations, after petitioning the Lahore High Court.”

He further stated that, there were no reports of arrests of the kiln owner so far, as it seems that the police are disinclined to further investigate into this case. The Christians who have been set free from the bonded labour said they had been “in bonded labour for more than 25 years”. One of the slave women was Safia Bibi who said she started working at the brick kiln along with her husband Anwar Masih, soon after her marriage. She further told that their nine children were all born at the brick kiln where they grew up and soon started working at the brick kiln. Adding to the inhuman behaviour of the kiln owners she reveals that, in 2013 her husband Anwar Masih died in the slavery because of sickness and weakness as he was forced to work without food. The Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement revealed that,”He was prevented from visiting a doctor, but would not have been able to afford treatment even if allowed. His children were not allowed to attend his funeral and were forced to work on the day.”

The rescued Christian families went on to reveal that they were kept in a house at the brick kiln with no basic facilities such as a bathroom or toilet. They told that they would sometimes have to go for days without food and when they demanded money, were forced to work more. The brick kiln owner often made these families work without wages and whenever they tried to leave, he severely tortured them. They were Christians, they were not allowed to attend prayer meetings or celebrate Christmas and other religious festivals, according to investigators.

The Director of Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement says they are committed to provide free legal aid to slaves. He said:

“It is sad that even in the 21st century, slavery still continues in Pakistan, a heavily Islamic nation.”

He said,”Although it is illegal to take employees into bonded labour, brick kiln owners are rich and influential, and therefore they are hardly questioned and brought to the justice. Even if they are raided they get away with offering bribes and drawing on their local influence. The government is aware of the situation, but unfortunately has never taken concentrated steps for the welfare of these people, and therefore slavery continues. Many Christians are forced to work in brick kilns to pay off family debts.” He also explains that, “Most of the money they earn goes towards paying their existing debt. As a kiln owner charges them heavy interest, their debts are never paid and they run to the next generation,” adding, “People are sometimes sold from one brick kiln owner to another.”

- See more at: http://www.christiansinpakistan.com/five-christian-families-rescued-from-slavery-of-a-mulsim-brick-kiln-owner/#sthash.4GUWyVQN.dpuf

Terrorists attack police during search operation in Peshawar

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Dunya News - Terrorists attack police during... by dunyanews

Terrorists attacked police during a search operation injuring DSP Officer Abdul Rehman in Peshawar on Wednesday, Dunya News reported. The terrorists successfully escaped as the police responded with retaliatory firing.

During an ongoing search operation led by DSP Abdul Rehman on Frontier Road near Barah Sheikhan, terrorists riding motorcycles and a car opened fire on the police which resulted in injuring DSP Abdul Rehman. The police force responded with retaliatory firing, however, the terrorists were successful in escaping from the scene and fled towards an unknown location. The police surrounded the location while the injured DSP was shifted to Lady Reading Hospital. According to the hospital crew, the DSP was shot in the leg and is completely out of danger.

In the last one week, 7 police officials have been killed in Peshawar.

Pakistan's Prime Minister: A part-time leader

By Zahid Hussain

“The most important quality in a leader is that of being acknowledged as such.” — André Maurois

UNFORTUNATELY, our third-time prime minister does not fit this criterion. While our troops are engaged in the most critical battle against militants and hundreds and thousands of people have been displaced from their homes in North Waziristan and are facing severe hardship, our leader is off to Saudi Arabia for his annual spiritual retreat for 10 days.

There cannot be any objection to his religious zeal. But as a leader he is also expected to focus on the job for which he has been elected. It is certainly no ordinary situation for a country in the midst of a conflict and looming humanitarian crisis.

Being away from the country for so long at this critical time and on a private trip illustrates how low governance is on his priority list. Should our leader not be dealing with the vital issues of national security at home rather than seeking his own salvation?

In any other country, a leader would have preferred to stay with one’s own people in times of tribulation. But this is not the case with Nawaz Sharif who is best described as a part-time leader with minimal interest in running the affairs of the state. Not surprisingly, the approval rating for his party has plummeted in a short period.

Surely, it is hard for any incumbent to maintain the same level of popular appeal that brings one to power. Yet the plunge in Nawaz Sharif’s approval ratings within the first year of his third term in office is astonishing even by Pakistani standards, if opinion polls are to be trusted.

Trailing far behind the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf, the party has now fallen behind even the PPP in public approval ratings. According to the latest Herald/SDPI opinion poll, only 17pc of respondents said they would vote for the PML-N if elections were held today compared to 33pc for the PTI and 19pc for the PPP which was routed in the last election.

Such a low popular standing does not come as a surprise given Sharif’s dismal performance and style of governance. His is more of a family limited company than a functional institutional democracy. All power is concentrated in the hands of a few members of the family. And now the ‘gifted’ daughter is being groomed as heir apparent. There is no party organisation and all decisions are made by Sharif alone. The exclusion of others has created serious misgivings among senior party members.

For once, Asif Ali Zardari was right when he said the people had voted for Sharif to be prime minister, not a monarch. And that monarchy is run from Lahore where Sharif mostly stays when not out of the country. The rest of the country does not seem to exist for him.

A frequently asked question is how different is the current Sharif government from the prime minister’s previous ones. The answer is simple: it is far worse. Sharif is more indecisive and as one political leader said “he has no fire in the belly”.

Yet there is no deficit of hubris of power. The Model Town carnage and police brutality is the hallmark of Sharif’s rule. The panicky reaction of the administration on the arrival of Tahirul Qadri is a manifestation of the increasing political alienation of the Sharif administration.

It has been a disappointing first year in power. There have been fewer examples of such a lacklustre leadership devoid of any foresight. His disdain for parliament is demonstrated by his rare appearances in the house in the past 14 months. Not surprisingly, parliament has been reduced to a dormant forum with little debate on substantive policy issues.

Sharif returned to power with a promise to take Pakistan to the path of economic revival and improved governance. But his vision of progress has been limited to metro buses and motorways. Certainly, his government has achieved short-term economic stability, but in the absence of fundamental structural reforms the long-term scenario does not look so encouraging.

The health of the economy is interpreted through the narrow prism of foreign exchange reserves and appreciation in the value of the rupee. It is scandalous the way the finance ministry apparently manipulated the economic growth rate to portray a positive picture of the economy. The distortion was exposed when the real figure was provided to the IMF.

A major reason for the erosion in the approval rating of the PML-N is the utter failure of the government to deal with the power crisis. There has not been any respite from load-shedding despite the government’s claim of substantial increase in power generation. The unresolved problem of circular debt is said to be the major reason for the widening shortfall in power supply. The government has done little to improve the working of the distribution companies or to collect outstanding bills.

After much dithering, Sharif has finally given the go-ahead for the military operation in North Waziristan. But he is still not willing to take complete ownership of the critical campaign. Even the responsibility for displaced persons has been handed over to the military. What is most alarming is the government’s decision to call in the army to guard important public installations in major cities. There is also a plan to give wider power to the armed forces under Section 245 of the Constitution. It is tantamount to a complete abdication of the civilian government’s responsibility.

Getting the army involved in maintaining law and order in the cities can mean a gradual military take­over. It is almost a repeat of 1998 when the Sharif government used the troops for everything starting with electricity meter readings. It is apparent that no lessons have been learnt from the past. A part-time leadership cannot deal with the grave situation confronted by the country.

Pakistan: 18 TTP Terrorists Disguised As IDPs Arrested From Larkana

shiapost.com

18 TTP terrorists disguised as IDPs arrested... by videosfever

At least 18 terrorists belonging to Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) have been arrested from Larkana, after they were disguised as Internal Displaced Persons (IDPs). DIG Police Larkana disclosed to media yesterday regrinding the arrest of 18 TTP terrorists who disguised themselves as IDPs while entering in Sindh province of Pakistan. Chief Minister Sindh, Syed Qaim Ali Shah said on Tuesday that terrorists from North Waziristan Agency can enter Sindh province in the form of IDPs.

Health Policy for Balochistan…?

By Safiullah Shahwani

Whereas the Provincial Health Minister Rehmat Saleh Baloch talks of a health policy for the province in his speeches at five star hotels with bottled water and air conditioned culture, the facilities of health still remain a dream for common citizens in Balochistan. During a recent visit of mine to the Civil Hospital Quetta, I witnessed pathetic conditions of the Hospital’s emergency centre. As the corridor opened, a strong stinking smell, ruthlessly ripping through my nostrils and flooding my senses, welcomed me inside where doctors, well aware of hygienic principles, were encircled in an unhygienic environment by a crowd of people. It seemed as if these people were some displaced persons of a war and had gathered at a makeshift camp to win a survival. Few steps ahead, a queue of beds were lined on the left side with patients lying on them resigned, encircled by as many attendants as could possibly have found time and opportunity to accompany the poor patients.

Drawing further into corridor led me to the Operation Theater (OT) where broken heads, fractured limbs and bleeding muscles were being stitched. Patients seemed surrounded by trainees who kept on suggesting attendants of the patients, every now and then, to fetch certain medicines from medical shops located in front of Civil Hospital Quetta, as if funds had never been allocated for purchase of medicines for decades. White tiles of the OT were blackened at some places, yellowish or reddish at other places—perhaps bearing the brunt of some strikes of sweepers or cruelty of some robber-cum-doctor-cum-administrators?—(so-called). Foams of the some beds were peeping outside the sheets to show their sympathy with patients. The corridor also had an X-ray room which was occupied by two officials responsible for making X-rays. One of them was perhaps in ecstasy of being the owner of the hospital. He yelled wildly at the patients who were mostly aged, children, and indigent sections. At one instance, he rudely rebuked a patients’ attendant, “Why don’t you people demolish this hospital and emancipate us?” I wondered if he was asking emancipation for himself from patients or for patients from himself and from his other accomplices—yes accomplices who were quite apt at thievery of many sort. Coordination is an essential component of service delivery but it seemed nowhere existent. Ethical values, civility, and good behavior were totally words of a different planet for the species of Hospital. Yelling, shouting, and insulting were, it seemed, part of their capacity building trainings—if there were any. Communication skills, load management, service delivery, maintenance of hygienic conditions within premises of the hospital were irrelevant objects. The corridor of the emergency ward literally presented a look of flocks of animals running, wandering, bleeding, shouting and crying in a state of confusion after being battered by some catastrophe. Few emergency patients arrived, bleeding but no stretchers were available to carry them to the OT. Two attendants of patients entered into a brawl for winning a stretcher for their patients, luckily found at some corner.

This all reminded of how proudly health policies are talked of with least regard for ground realities. Bravo Mr. Health Minister, the health policy is indeed unmatchable you talk of! Bravo Mr. Chief Minister your special focus has indeed improved the health sector to unimaginable degrees! Bravo our sincere doctors, you are all sincere with your Hippocrates oath to the core! My honoured rulers, doctors, paramedics—looters and all—your commitment to this soil, to the people of this deprived province—deprived, plundered and looted by colonist forces only? Your commitment to this soil is so high that perhaps a conspiracy of Punjab can only deter you to serve your—yes your own—people.

Pakistan: Hundreds protest load-shedding in Lahore

The Express Tribune

Hundreds of demonstrators armed with sticks staged a protest against load-shedding outside the Lahore Electric Supply Corporation (Lesco) office in the Batapur area of the city, Express News reported on Wednesday. According to reports, the protesters were facing around 16 hours of load-shedding on a daily basis. The protest turned violent when demonstrators smashed the glass doors of the Lesco office and proceeded to break the windows of a car as well. Three of car’s passengers were injured as a result of the violence.

Hundreds protest load-shedding outside Lesco... by ExpressNewsHD

A few policemen attempted to snatch the sticks from the protesters, however, they failed to disarm them. More cops were later called in to control the angry mob. Tyres were seen burning near the protesters, who were wielding sticks and chanting slogans.

Pakistan: Nawaz's Saudi Arabia tour

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Punjab Secretary General Tanvir Ashraf Kaira has said that Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif’s visit to Saudi Arabia shows his non-seriousness on internal national issues, especially the ongoing Zarb-e-Azb military operation in North Waziristan Agency.

In a statement on Tuesday, the PPP leader said that Prime Minister Nawaz was away on a foreign tour for about two weeks suggesting that pressing problems facing the country at present do not deserve his constant attention and physical presence in the country. He said that Pakistan was fighting the war of its survival and its PM’s absence from the country for a longer period of time could not be condoned by any measure. “This cannot be justified when the country is in a state of war because the scourge of terrorism and extremism is a grave threat to the security of the country,” he added.

He said that the performance of religious rituals was important but the PM should return to the country after a couple of days and give direction to deal with the emerging situation as the country was fighting a war that needed his presence to take immediate important decisions regarding the ongoing military operation.

Kaira opined that the PM’s departure reportedly for two weeks to a foreign country also gives the impression of his abdication of responsibilities to very important national issues with deep-rooted implications for the security of the country. He suggested that the PM should cut short his visit and come back to assume the leading role of taking decisions because he was the elected chief executive of the country and accountable to the people and the Parliament.

Kaira said that issues of internally displaced persons, electricity outages, poverty and non-availability of civic amenities to the people had made their lives miserable and the PM was required to assure them with full seriousness that he was cognisant of their plight and was taking concrete steps to mitigate their sufferings.

Kaira also observed that Prime Minister Nawaz’s absence from the country would not bode well for the people whose hopes of better days during this government were dwindling fast.

Pakistan: Opp issues ‘white paper’ on PML-N govt’s performance

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/

Punjab Assembly (PA) Opposition Leader Mian Mahmoodur Rashid has issued what he called a “white paper” on the financial mismanagement and bad governance of the PML-N government, which has now been in power in Punjab Province for over six years.

Sharing details of the paper with the press in his chamber on Tuesday, the opposition leader said that the Punjab government was taking $350 million fresh loan from the Asian Development Bank and $35 million from the International Fund for Agricultural Development but that its massive financial mismanagement and bad governance had taken the province back to a position where it was 10 years ago.

He said that the province was under a heavy burden of Rs 452 billion loans and to top that burden, the government has further applied for loans amounting to $385 million.

The existing loans and the new ones would add to the miseries of the province while paying off the principal amount of these loans as well as mark-up, he said.

Rashid said that from 2008, Punjab was getting an additional Rs 100 billion apart from what it was getting under the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award. He said that the additional Rs 100 billion had not helped the province at all and the financial condition of the province was rather getting worse with every passing day.

The government kept on taking loans, he said, adding that each year a deficit budget was presented that proved that the financial conditions of the province were getting from bad to worse.

The PTI leader said that if the government could generate Rs 100 billon funds on its own for Metro Bus Projects in three cities of the province then why could it not generate funds from its own resources to improve the declining living standard of the people.

He said that Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif had promised while assuming charge of the province six years ago that he would not rely on foreign loans and would not leave a legacy of loans for the next generations but the amount of loans his government had taken and continues to take had mortgaged the income of our several next generations. “No matter how soft the terms of repaying the loans are and does not matter how long the duration period of repaying the loans is but the fact is that several next generation will have to live under heavy burden of loans and the responsibility of these loans will be on the shoulders of the present government,” he added.

He said that the provincial government was following in the footsteps of the federal government, which was also taking massive loans and that the whole nation would have to suffer for their blunders.

He said that the provincial government does not want to learn from the blunders it has committed in the past and continues to invest and waste money on useless and failed projects like Yellow Cab scheme, Ashiyana housing scheme, sasti roti, food support programme, laptop scheme, green tractor scheme, mobile health units, solar lamp and Daanish schools etc when it has already wasted over Rs 100 billion on such useless projects.

“How have these projects improved the living standard of the people and how have education and health sectors improved due to these projects?” he asked.

“How much has the inflation been lowered and how many employment chances have these projects created?” he further asked.

“Had these funds been used to improve the agriculture sector, industrial growth and power generation the province would have registered improvement in the living standard of the people,” he said, adding that we would not have been compelled to import potatoes, fruits and other vegetables had the provincial funds been utilised in a better and sane manner. The opposition leader went on to say that the provincial government has failed to introduce reforms for the betterment of the people and that corruption and tax evasion has been flourishing and there are no checks and balances in place to put the lid on all these social ills.

Pakistan: Governance problems

Talk about a political counter-narrative against terrorism remains just talk as the political leadership has taken a back seat to the military with regard to the conduct of operations against terrorism and the security paradigm. The government appears out of its depth and beleaguered in the face of the multiple challenges it faces, from the energy shortage to Imran Khan’s proposed ‘Azadi (independence) March’ on August 14. This has been compounded by a lack of strong leadership and an inability to prioritise correctly. From mega-transport projects to roads and Metro Bus systems, the ruling party’s focus has drifted away from solving the power crisis — crucial for the economy — despite its election promises. In the wake of the operation in North Waziristan it seems at sixes and sevens about what its priorities should be. The security paradigm is now effectively out of its hands with reports saying the military is fully in charge of Operation Zarb-e-Azb and its consequences, including the care of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). This is unsurprising given the government’s negotiations strategy was a failure and that it waffled on tackling terrorism, but the inability to tackle even those problems that it is equipped to deal with has left it severely weakened by an increasing chorus of criticism. In this environment, Prime Minister (PM) Nawaz Sharif is counting on military support to help deal with the political challenge being posed by Imran Khan and Tahirul Qadri, who the military fears may cause even more instability at a time when security is paramount and the threat of terrorists attacking public processions is higher than ever. Reports say that the PM wants the military to help persuade Imran Khan to change his plans in the greater interests of the country, since he has been unable to do so himself. Whether the military will be able to do so remains to be seen, but given that security is paramount, it may be that Imran will be prevailed upon.

The change in government-military relations comes on the heels of seeming resolution of several bones of contention between them. The first was the trial of former president Pervez Musharraf, who was charged with treason under Article six of the Constitution for imposing an emergency in 2007. Reportedly the last two meetings between the PM and the military establishment have been focused on the issue. The precedent such a case could set is a matter of concern for the military as were the angry statements of ministers Khwaja Asif and Khwaja Saad Rafique who insisted earlier this year that the trial would continue, until the PM himself cut them down to size when rumours of military displeasure began circulating. Now there are signs that Musharraf will be allowed to leave the country after Eid. Again, however, the sense of priorities was misplaced since the trial was a distraction from the serious issues the government needed to resolve that are now crippling it — particularly true for Khwaja Asif who also holds the Water and Power portfolio in addition to Defence. He should have focused on the possible, and moved swiftly on tackling the power crisis that was developing after the relatively easy winter months passed. Subsequently, bad governance has arisen as another concern. From the military’s point of view, internal chaos is a militant force-multiplier and threatens to undermine the gains made by the operation. The military may be willing to mediate in the current political conflict but has reservations about becoming openly involved in the political process. Constitutionality has become the mantra of both the military and civilian leaderships, hence the PM’s fence mending with the military is important, but not as important as proving to the country that he deserves to remain in power. He must move to correct the imbalances in policy making that have left him vulnerable. Leadership is required that only he can provide. The first step is to move on solving the power crisis and ensure that his ministers are administering their portfolios properly.

Of forgotten poets: The elegist of Peshawar fights a lonely battle for his life

The writer of hundreds of Pukhtun anthems, Fazal Subhan Abid, is fighting for his life at a hospital in his hometown of Dargai, Malakand. The well-known poet and lyricist, who has composed some of the best beloved Pashto songs of our time, is suffering from Hepatitis C and other health complications.

The 58-year-old Abid Jan, as he is lovingly called by his fans, has spent the past 14 years in Dubai earning a living. He had to return home, however, as his health deteriorated. Due to a lack of proper treatment, Abid’s other organs have also been damaged.

To make matters worse, his ability to pay for his treatment has diminished as well. It has been a long and expensive trial over the last seven years and doctors have now advised operations which could set him back by about Rs8 million. Although the provincial culture minister has announced Rs100,000 for Abid, it is nowhere near the amount he really needs.

Abid’s all-time hits include anthems such as ‘Pekhawar kho Pekhawar day kana’ (Peshawar is Peshawar after all) first sung by Gulzar Alam in 1998 and ‘Pa Pekhawar ke parhar ma jorawai’ (Stop ripping Peshawar apart) sung by Hashmat Sahar. It is an irony that the songs are so well-known but their maker is largely forgotten. “My songs have given me recognition among Pukhtuns in Pakistan, Afghanistan and our diaspora around the world,” said the writer while speaking to The Express Tribune. “The importance of this music among the Pukhtuns is undeniable because of their love for their homeland.”

Some of Abid’s earlier works replaced long-standing favourites such as ‘Mung yu da Khyber zalmi’ (We are the youth of Khyber), which was performed by venerated Pashto ghazal singer Khyal Muhammad. His ‘Lewanai mausam’ (Seasons of madness) has been sung by artists such as Haroon Bacha, Kifayat Shah Bacha and Nazia Iqbal among others.

Others classics include ‘Da Karachai da ranragano khar ke wraka yara’ (Oh lover, you are lost to the lights of Karachi) and ‘Taswir de sanga jorh kram’ (How do I paint your picture), among hundreds of ghazals, which have been complied in a two-volume anthology titled ‘Lewanai mausam’. Another poetry collection is awaiting publication.

“I have always tried to write poetry according to the conditions of my province,” says Abid. “War and militancy have affected every fibre of society, and so, it was inevitable that our poetry and literature would eventually incorporate these elements.”

Abid says a major chunk of his work has focused on paying tribute to Peshawar. “It is a city for the common man,” he says. “It is the centre of all hope for the Pukhtuns and every one of us yearns for the day we will see peace spread in this city of flowers again.”

He believes that good art always leaves an impact on people. “They will hum these tunes for years to come and the words will continue to resound in their hearts long after I am gone,” Abid said from his bed. “It is unfortunate that the work is always remembered, but not the people who are responsible for creating it.”

Some of Abid Jan’s songs have never been performed. One of them carries more than just a message for Peshawar: ‘Sumra lawaris shway Pekhawara sok de nishta’ or ‘How abandoned you are Peshawar, with no one left to care for you’.

North Waziristan: Pak military jets pound militant hideouts, 13 killed

http://dunyanews.tv/

At least 13 militants were killed as military jets bombed several hideouts of militants in North Waziristan in an ongoing offensive against the Taliban.

The airstrikes were carried out in Shawal Tehsil of North Waziristan.

According to sources, eight hideouts were destroyed and at least 13 terrorists were killed in the Wednesday morning airstrikes.

Two days ago, 28 terrorists were killed while six hideouts were destroyed in the same Tehsil as Pakistan army continues the Zarb-e-Azb operation in North Waziristan.

Last month Pakistan's military launched a long-awaited offensive in North Waziristan, aimed at wiping out longstanding militant strongholds in the area, which borders Afghanistan.

More than 400 militants and 20 soldiers have been killed in the offensive so far, according to the military. The area is off-limits to journalists and the number and identity of the dead is impossible to verify.

Earlier, Pakistani jets and artillery pounded militant hideouts in Miranshah, killing 18 foreign and local insurgents.

The air strikes came a day after militants crossed from the Afghan province of Kunar to launch a pre-dawn ambush on a check post in Bajaur tribal district, killing three Pakistani soldiers.

"Pakistan lodged a strong protest with the Afghan side in Islamabad and Kabul on Saturday and reiterated that Afghanistan should eliminate the terrorist sanctuaries and not allow its territory to be used against Pakistan," the foreign ministry said in a statement

Pakistan: NW operation not fulfilled US expectations: Gen Joseph

US Force Commander Gen Joseph F. Dunford in Afghanistan has said that Pakistan Armed Forces offensive in North Waziristan have not fulfilled the US expectations adding that the offensive could not show its effect on Haqqani Network. Talking to US Congress, Gen Joseph Dunford stated that NW offensive has gained success at some extent against banned outfit Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Uzbik militants but it is not successful against Haqqani Network as expected by US. However US General has admitted that the NW offensive has hindered the Haqqani Network and compelled it to flee from its hide outs in Miran Shah.

US: Pakistan's Offensive Pushes Out Haqqani Network

Ayaz Gul

A top American diplomat says the United States believes Pakistan’s counterinsurgency operation in North Waziristan has pushed the militant Haqqani network out of the country's restive tribal region in the northwest.

U.S. Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan James Dobbins said Tuesday the U.S. will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to those displaced by the offensive.

Dobbins is visiting Pakistan and Afghanistan to discuss political and security issues with leaders in both countries.

A day after meeting senior political and military leaders in Islamabad, he told reporters in Kabul that talks revolved around the Pakistani army's anti-militancy operation in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal district.

“The operation in North Waziristan seems to be a quite a massive operation. The army has taken a number of casualties," said Dobbins. "It has inflicted an even larger number of casualties on both domestic and foreign militants in the area, including Afghans. It has seized huge amounts of ammunition of IED-precursor material and bomb-making facilities, particularly in Miranshah.”

Clearing militants

Pakistan's army says so far it has killed more than 500 militants linked to the Pakistani Taliban and its Uzbek allies. The military claims to have cleared North Waziristan's central town of Miranshah and adjoining areas of militants, and has confirmed the deaths of at least 32 soldiers.

In addition to being a hub of domestic militants, the Waziristan region also has served as a major base for the al-Qaida-linked Haqqani network, which has launched deadly attacks on Afghan and U.S.-led coalition forces across the border in Afghanistan. The militant network is a close ally of the Afghan Taliban and has alleged links to the Pakistani spy agency [ISI].

Dobbins also responded to concerns the Pakistani military offensive did not directly target the Haqqani network and other fugitive Afghan insurgents.

“As regards to the Haqqani network, we believe that they, like other militants, have in fact been pushed out of North Waziristan, and our concern is whether they would come back or be allowed to operate elsewhere in Pakistan," he said.

"We have been assured by the Pakistani government that they will not be allowed back into North Waziristan and they will not be allowed to operate from elsewhere in Pakistan. And we will, of course, be observing that carefully,” he said.

Dobbins said the military offensive has displaced nearly the entire population of North Waziristan. He noted that the U.S. is providing aid for the internally displaced people and also will assist in reconstruction efforts when the army operation is completed.

Pakistan: Zardari meets US Vice President Joe Biden

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairman and former president of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari held a meeting with US Vice President Joe Biden here, Geo News reported. In more than one-hour meeting, also attended by other members of US Congress, both the leaders discussed ongoing military operation Zarb-e-Azb in North Waziristan beside bilateral issues. They also exchanged views on regional situation after withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan.

Tahira Syed - Abhi Tu Mein Jawan Hoon

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Shakira - Hips Dont Lie - She Wolf - Waka Waka

Isis militants 'seize Iraq monastery and expel monks'

Islamist militants in Iraq are reported to have seized an ancient monastery near Mosul and expelled the monks./blockquote>

Local residents said monks at the Mar Behnam monastery were allowed to take only the clothes they were wearing.

The monastery, which dates from the 4th Century, is a major Christian landmark and a place of pilgrimage.

Christians have fled Mosul after the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isis) told them to convert to Islam, pay a tax or face death.

Isis has seized large parts of Syria and Iraq and said last month it was creating an Islamic caliphate.

Mosul itself is now said to be empty of Christians.

The Mar Behnam monastery is run by the Syriac Catholic Church and is near the predominantly Christian town of Qaraqosh, to the south-east of Mosul.

Ancient landmarks like Mar Behnam show how deeply embedded Christianity is in the culture and history of Iraq. Just as in many other Arab countries, churches and monasteries are a timeless part of the landscape.

For years, though, Christians have been warning that their hold in parts of the Middle East is weakening. In Iraq, the lightning seizure of large parts of the country by Isis has been a frightening new threat. Thousands have fled Mosul, leaving it for the first time without a Christian community, after Isis gave them an ultimatum to submit to its authority or face death. But if Iraqi Christians face penalties and discrimination under Isis, other religious sects are faring even worse. Yazidis and Shia Muslims risk being taken out and killed on the spot for their beliefs.

A member of the Syriac clergy quoted the militants as telling the monastery's residents: "You have no place here any more, you have to leave immediately."

He said the monks asked to be allowed to save some of the monastery's relics but the fighters refused.

Local Christian residents told AFP news agency that the monks walked for several miles before they were picked up by Kurdish fighters.

Earlier this month, Isis issued an ultimatum in Mosul, citing a historic contract known as "dhimma," under which non-Muslims in Islamic societies who refuse to convert are offered protection if they pay a fee, called a "jizya".

"We offer them three choices: Islam; the dhimma contract - involving payment of jizya; if they refuse this they will have nothing but the sword," the Isis statement said.

Isis issued a similar ultimatum in the Syrian city of Raqqa in February, calling on Christians to pay about half an ounce (14g) of pure gold in exchange for their safety.

Iraq is home to one of the world's most ancient Christian communities but its population has dwindled amid growing sectarian violence since the US-led invasion in 2003.

Video: President Obama Signs the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act

Nearly 40 kids infected with polio in Syria, Iraq: UN

Thirty-eight children have been paralyzed by polio in Syria and Iraq since October last year and there is a high risk that the disease will spread further in the Middle East, the United Nations says.

“It is now even more imperative to reach every child multiple times, and to do whatever we can to vaccinate children we could not reach in previous rounds," said Maria Calivis, regional director for the Middle East and North Africa at the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), in a report on Tuesday.

The disease, which broke out in Deir al-Zor, the largest in the eastern part of Syria, has infected 36 people in the crisis-hit country so far. Most of the Syria cases were recorded in Deir al-Zor, but others were in Aleppo, Idlib, Hama, and Hasakah. "Right now we estimate that there are 765,000 children inside Syria who live in areas that are hard to reach. And as long as we don't get full and regular access to these children, the chances of polio spreading further will continue to exist," said Juliette Touma, a spokesperson for UNICEF. The two cases in Iraq are children living around the capital Baghdad. Between December 2013 and June, a polio vaccination campaign was launched in seven countries of the Middle East, which reached a record 25 million children, according to UNICEF and the World Health Organization. A second phase of the campaign is planned to take place from August.

Saudi Israeli alliance forged in blood

David Hearst

This Saudi-Israeli alliance is forged in blood, Palestinian blood, the blood on Sunday of over 100 souls in Shejaiya

There are many hands behind the Israeli army’s onslaught on Gaza. America is not unhappy that Hamas is getting such a beating. As footage of the scenes of carnage on the streets of Shejaiya was coming through, John Kerry said on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday that Israel had every right to defend itself and the US ambassador Dan Shapiro told Israel’s Channel 2 news that the US would seek to help moderate forces become stronger in Gaza, meaning the Palestinian Authority.

Nor is Egypt overcome with grief. Its foreign minister Sameh Shoukry held Hamas responsible for civilian deaths after their rejection of the ceasefire.

Neither matter to Netanyahu as much as the third undeclared partner in this unholy alliance, for neither on their own could give him the cover he needs for a military operation of this ferocity. And that can come not from a handwringing but impotent parent like the US. Such permission can only come from a brother Arab.

The attack on Gaza comes by Saudi Royal Appointment. This royal warrant is nothing less than an open secret in Israel, and both former and serving defense officials are relaxed when they talk about it. Former Israeli defence minister Shaul Mofaz surprised the presenter on Channel 10 by saying Israel had to specify a role for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the demilitarisation of Hamas. Asked what he meant by that, he added that Saudi and Emirati funds should be used to rebuild Gaza after Hamas had been defanged.

Amos Gilad, the Israeli defence establishment’s point man with Mubarak’s Egypt and now director of the Israeli defence ministry's policy and political-military relations department told the academic James Dorsey recently: "Everything is underground, nothing is public. But our security cooperation with Egypt and the Gulf states is unique. This is the best period of security and diplomatic relations with the Arab.”

The celebration is mutual. King Abdullah let it be known that he had phoned President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi to approve of an Egyptian ceasefire initiative which had not been put to Hamas, and had the Jerusalem Post quoting analysts about whether a ceasefire was ever seriously intended.

Mossad and Saudi intelligence officials meet regularly: The two sides conferred when the former Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi was about to be deposed in Egypt and they are hand in glove on Iran , both in preparing for an Israel strike over Saudi airspace and in sabotaging the existing nuclear programme. There has even been a well sourced claim that the Saudis are financing most of Israel’s very expensive campaign against Iran.

Why do Saudi Arabia and Israel make such comfortable bedfellows? For decades both countries have had a similar feeling in their gut when they look around them: fear. Their reaction was similar .Each felt they could only insure themselves against their neighbours by invading them (Lebanon, Yemen) or by funding proxy wars and coups (Syria, Egypt, Libya). They have enemies or rivals in common - Iran, Turkey, Qatar, Hamas in Gaza, and Muslim Brotherhood elsewhere. And they have common allies, too - the US and British military industrial establishments, Fatah strongman and US asset Mohammed Dahlan who tried to take over Gaza once, and will probably be ready to do so again.

The difference today is that for the first time in their two countries’ history there is open co-ordination between the two military powers. Abdullah’s nephew Prince Turki has been the public face of this rapprochement, which was first signalled by the Saudi publication of a book by an Israeli academic. The prince flew to Brussels in May to meet General Amos Yadlin, the former intelligence chief who has been indicted by a court in Turkey for his role in the storming of the Mavi Marmara.

It could be argued that there is nothing sinister about Prince Turki’s involvement in the Israeli debate and that his motives are both peaceful and laudable. The prince is a staunch supporter of a laudable peace initiative proposed by the Saudi King Abdullah. The Arab Peace Initiative supported by 22 Arab States and 56 Muslim countries would indeed have been a basis for peace had Israel not ignored it some 12 years ago.

Prince Turki waxed lyrical about the prospect of peace in an article published by Haaretz. In it he wrote: “And what a pleasure it would be to be able to invite not just the Palestinians but also the Israelis I would meet to come and visit me in Riyadh, where they can visit my ancestral home in Dir’iyyah, which suffered at the hands of Ibrahim Pasha the same fate as Jerusalem did at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar and the Romans.”

It's the means, not the end which expose the true human cost of these alliances. Prince Turki’s promotion of the Arab Peace Initiative comes at the cost of abandoning the kingdom’s historical support of Palestinian resistance.

The well connected Saudi analyst Jamal Khashogji made this very point when he talked in coded language about the number of intellectuals who attack the notion of resistance: "Regrettably, the number of such intellectuals here in Saudi Arabia is higher than average. If such a trend continues it will destroy the kingdom's honourable claim to support and defend the Palestinian cause since the time of its founder, King Abd Al-Aziz Al-Saud."

Peace would indeed be welcome to everyone, not least Gaza at the moment. The means by which Israel’s allies in Saudi Arabia and Egypt are going about achieving it, by encouraging Israel to deal Hamas a crippling blow, calls into question what is really going on here. Turki’s father King Faisal bin Abdulaziz would be turning in his grave at what the son is putting his name to.

This Saudi-Israeli alliance is forged in blood, Palestinian blood, the blood on Sunday of over 100 souls in Shejaiya.

- See more at: http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/saudi-israeli-alliance-forged-blood-601611381#sthash.jWELyK6W.dpuf

Developing Situation in Ukraine Unacceptable, Counterproductive, Destabilizing - Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that scenarios in the developing crisis in Ukraine are unacceptable, counterproductive and destabilizing the situation in the world.

“If we return to similar scenarios, as a whole, as I have already said, then this is absolutely unacceptable and counterproductive. This is destroying the modern world and order. Undoubtedly, such methods in regard to Russia won’t work,” Putin said during a Security Council meeting.

“Our people, our citizens of Russia won’t let that happen and they will never accept [this],” he said. At the moment Ukrainian authorities are carrying out a military operation in the east of Ukraine, fighting against the supporters of independence of southeastern regions, who refused to acknowledge the new government appointed after the coup back in February. Thousands of Ukrainians flee from the war-stricken regions to Russia seeking refugee status.

The European Union and the United States imposed sanctions against several Russian officials and companies over the Ukrainian crisis. Moscow responded with its own sanctions, releasing a list of US citizens banned from entering Russia.

POLITICO poll: Stay out of Ukraine, Middle East

By ALEXANDER BURNS

Amid deepening violence across Eastern Europe and the Middle East, Americans are recoiling from direct engagement overseas and oppose U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Ukraine by large margins, according to a POLITICO poll of 2014 battleground voters.

The survey provides a unique look at the foreign policy attitudes of voters who will decide the most competitive Senate and House races this fall. It shows an intensely skeptical view of American military intervention:

Asked whether the U.S should do more to counter Russian aggression in Ukraine, just 17 percent answered in the affirmative. Thirty-one percent said the current policy is correct and 34 percent said the U.S. should be less involved. The poll was completed before the downing last week of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17, the civilian airliner that was apparently attacked over eastern Ukraine.

More than three-quarters of likely voters say they support plans to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2016. Only 23 percent oppose the plan.

Forty-four percent of likely voters favor less involvement in Iraq’s civil war, versus 19 percent who favor more involvement and 23 percent who say the current level of involvement is appropriate.

A 51 percent majority said the situation in Iraq affects U.S. national security “a little” or “not at all.” Forty-two percent said it affects U.S. national security “a lot.”

Likely voters prefer less involvement in Syria’s civil war over more involvement, 42 percent to 15 percent. Twenty-six percent of likely voters support the current, limited level of involvement.

On the issue of foreign policy specifically, voters say they trust Republicans over Democrats by 7 points, 39 percent to 32 percent. Twenty-eight percent said they were unsure which party to trust.

The picture that emerges from the survey is consistent across issues of foreign policy and national security: Americans are profoundly wary of getting entangled overseas and seem to be skeptical of the value of projecting U.S. power on foreign conflicts. Republicans are modestly more hawkish than Democratic and independent voters, but a majority of self-identified GOP voters support pulling out of Afghanistan and maintaining or reducing involvement in Iraq, Syria and Ukraine.

In the big picture, two-thirds of respondents agreed with the statement that U.S. military actions should be “limited to direct threats to our national security.” Only 22 percent agreed with the statement that as a “moral leader,” the United States “has a responsibility to use its military to protect democracy around the globe.” Respondent Deborah Cantrell, a Georgia nurse who intends to vote for Democratic candidates this fall, said she supports pulling back from Iraq and Afghanistan and believes the situation in Ukraine is “very complicated.” “I think any time ethnic nationalism goes on, it’s really bad,” said Cantrell, 58. “I hope we don’t get terribly involved right off the bat because I’m not sure we can do anything to make it better. I generally don’t think we can go in and have people behave properly just because we’re there.”

Californian Eugene Diamond, a student who also works at a supermarket, blames President Barack Obama for the eruption of conflicts around the globe. “Obama’s afraid of everybody,” said Diamond, 24, a registered Republican. “I can’t wait until Hillary [Clinton] or anybody else comes in and gets this guy out.” The POLITICO poll, designed by SocialSphere Inc. and conducted by the research firm GfK, tested 834 likely voters in competitive U.S. House and Senate races. The poll was conducted online using GfK’s KnowledgePanel methodology, which is also employed by The Associated Press. The poll ran from July 3-13 and has an overall margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage points. While voters appear to have strong inclinations on foreign policy and on national security, it is unclear how powerfully those issues will weigh on the 2014 elections. Eighty-nine percent of respondents said that foreign policy would be important in determining their vote this year, but when asked to name the issue that would matter most, just 11 percent named foreign affairs, national defense or terrorism.

In contrast, 31 percent chose jobs and the economy as the most important issue, with 9 percent choosing health care and 8 percent choosing immigration. On the issue of foreign policy specifically, voters say they trust Republicans over Democrats by 7 points, 39 percent to 32 percent. Twenty-eight percent said they were unsure which party to trust.

In the 2014 elections, voters said they prefer Republican candidates over Democrats by 2 points, 39 to 37 percent. In May, POLITICO found the GOP with a wider, 7-point lead on the generic ballot. Part of the shift can be attributed to a greater share of Democrats in the new, randomly selected polling sample responding that they would be likely to vote in November. It also comes as Democratic strategists argue that the political environment has stabilized to some extent for their candidates, rather than continuing to deteriorate over the early summer. Still, voters continue to give a thumbs down to Obama and express continued concern over the larger direction of the country. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said they disapprove of the president’s job performance, while 43 percent approve.

Of the president’s health care law, a majority say it should either be kept as it is (17 percent) or kept in place with modifications (38 percent). A 45 percent plurality says the Affordable Care Act should be repealed outright. Both parties in Congress remain intensely unpopular: Voters disapprove of congressional Republicans more than they approve, 73 percent to 26 percent. For congressional Democrats, it was 63 percent to 36 percent.

The foreign policy and national security results in the poll could be even more significant for the looming 2016 presidential contest than they are for this year’s House and Senate elections. Republicans have already begun drawing lines of internal debate around defense issues; several potential candidates, including Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, have emerged as interventionist voices, while Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is his party’s chief skeptic of foreign engagement.

On the other side, the leading Democratic presidential contender, Hillary Clinton, most recently served as Obama’s first secretary of state. Likely voters in the poll rated her conduct in the job negatively: 53 percent said her performance was “fair” or “poor,” and 42 percent said it was “good” or “excellent.”

Richard Beslaw, a onetime Ron Paul supporter from central Florida, said he wasn’t yet sure whether he would support the former Texas congressman’s son for president. But the 30-year-old pharmacy technician said he lines up with the more anti-interventionist view of foreign relations.

“I think all the soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq and a lot of overseas places should be brought back to the U.S. and used on the borders,” said Beslaw, who said he was concerned about the situation in Ukraine but didn’t see a military role for the U.S. there. “We should be at that table, involved in the investigation [of the downing of Flight MH17]. But as far as military action — no.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2014/07/politico-poll-ukraine-middle-east-109155_Page2.html#ixzz38DsfthWB

US and European airlines halt Israel flights

US and European airlines have suspended flights into Israel's Ben Gurion airport after a rocket landed one mile (1.6km) away.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) ordered three US carriers that fly to Israel - Delta, United and US Airways - to halt flights for 24 hours.

European carriers Lufthansa, KLM, and Air France have also cancelled flights to Tel Aviv.

The move comes amid heightened scrutiny over flights near conflict zones.

Israel's Civil Aviation Authority director Giora Romm said: "We are working together with the FAA to demonstrate to them the level of confidence that we have in Ben Gurion Airport and to convince them to renew flights as soon as possible."

The FAA's prohibition only applies to US airlines. The agency has no authority over foreign airlines operating to or from the airport.

However, Lufthansa - which includes Swiss, Germanwings and Austrian Airlines - said it had decided to suspend flights to Israel for two days.

KLM and Air France also said they had suspended flights scheduled to depart on Tuesday.

However, Air France said a flight scheduled for Wednesday is still scheduled to depart.

Flight diverted

Delta said a flight from New York City to Tel Aviv was diverted to Paris on Tuesday after Israeli police confirmed that a rocket landed approximately one mile (1.6km) from Ben Gurion airport.

British Airways said in response to questions on Twitter: 'We are closely monitoring the situation. Our flights are currently operating as scheduled."

The halt in service comes less than a week after Israel began a ground operation in Gaza, and as airlines around the world re-think their flight paths over conflict areas in the wake of the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in eastern Ukraine.

Video : Afghan Tajik Music 2014

Afghan Car Buyers Urged to Defy the 'Curse of 39'

Afghans' aversion to the number 39 due to its mysterious connotations of prostitution forced the government on Tuesday to appeal for people to stop refusing vehicle licence plates containing the much-feared figure.

The "curse of 39" has struck repeatedly in recent years, returning as registration number combinations cycle over, with car dealers complaining they get stuck with vehicles that they are unable to sell due to a bizarre urban legend.

According to many Afghans, "39" got its bad reputation through a well-known pimp who was often identified by the number on his car plates as he drove around Herat, the western city that lies close to the border with Iran. The man's seedy image and illicit business meant that the number became associated with immorality. Apocryphal or not, the tale spread to other Afghan cities -- and the curse was born.

Now anyone seen sporting a "39" licence plate is in danger of being linked to the underground sex industry that is taboo in the devoutly Muslim nation.

The vehicle licensing system is now putting 39 at the front of plate numbers, causing a backlog of sales as potential buyers refuse to make a purchase that could bring ridicule.

"We cannot remove 39 -- this is illogical to remove a number from the whole system," interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told the Tolo news channel.

"The people should accept the number plates that contain 39 so that the process of registering cars resumes again.

"We cannot change the system, we have to change the people's mentality toward that number."

The Kabul traffic department, which issues licence plates in the capital, said it had 800 plates that no one would take.

"This has harmed our revenue," General Assadullah, head of the Kabul traffic department, told AFP.

"Revenue has gone down by a half this year. The process of distributing new number plates has been very slow because the registration is now beginning with 39 and people don't want to take them."

Buyers are alleged to pay bribes to avoid the number in new vehicles, while owners who do have 39 in their plates often doctor their plates illegally using white paint to change the digits.

"The people who fan this idea are those who are corrupt, and those who intentionally want to misuse it for their own benefit," said Sediq, implying that the rumour-mongers are those who benefit from accepting bribes.

Afghanistan was at risk of major disaster due to elections

The national security advisor Dr. Rangin Dadfar Spanta said Tuesday that the runoff presidential election had placed Afghanistan in a dangerous situation.

Spanta said an agreement to form a national unity government was key to rescue the country from an uncontrollable situation and end the political impasse.

He said majority of the people were pessimistic regarding a democratic process and half of the people were feeling discrimination due to an orchestrated election process.

According to Spanta, the issue had sparked rage and furor among the Afghan people which had put Afghanistan in a dangerous and uncontrollable situation.

He said the anti-government armed militant groups and terrorist networks would benefit more than any one else that could further destabilize the country.

The agreement to form a national unity government was reached between the two presidential contenders, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah and Dr. Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, following US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit. Kerry visited Kabul amid concerns that the disputed runoff election could endanger the stability of the country as certain allies of a presidential candidate had suggested a parallel government.

News Analysis: Pakistan's major anti-Taliban Waziristan offensive revives tension with Afghanistan

by Muhammad Tahir

When Pakistan launched its long- awaited major military offensive against the local Taliban and other foreign jihadists in their main sanctuary in North Waziristan last month, the army formally requested the Afghan security forces to boost border security to stop fleeing militants from crossing the border.

Pakistan had a valid reason for its request to the neighboring country as the Waziristan military push had also been a long- standing demand by the United States and Afghanistan.

It is believed that the operation may not achieve its required goals if the Afghan and NATO troops in Afghanistan fail to stop the militants from entering Afghanistan.

Kabul and Washington insisted that the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani Network used the Waziristan region as their major base for making plans and to carry out cross-border attacks on Afghan and NATO forces.

However, latest statements from senior Afghan officials suggest that they are dissatisfied at the outcome of the offensive so far as they argued that the "Pakistani forces only targeted Pakistani Taliban."

"The current military offensive in North Waziristan is unacceptable to the Afghan government. The operation is only against the Pakistani Taliban. Pakistani forces have neither taken any action against the Haqqani Network nor has it been disarmed," the Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmad Shakib Mustaghni said in Kabul on Monday.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry did not directly react to Mustaghni's remarks. However its spokesperson, Tasnim Aslam, said that Pakistan has clearly stated that the operation in North Waziristan is against all terrorists.

"Afghans should focus on taking measures on their side of the international border, ensure that terrorists do not get sanctuaries on Afghan soil," she said in a text message to a Xinhua query.

Kabul and Washington have both accused the Haqqani Network for most of the attacks, including last week's deadly car suicide bombing in eastern Paktika province that killed more than 80 people, almost all civilians. They claim that Haqqanis have made North Waziristan their sanctuary for years.

Mustaghni also pointed figures at Pakistani security agencies when a reporter asked him at his weekly briefing on Monday about the growing incidents of violence in the country and the deadly Paktika car suicide bomb attack.

"Our security agencies have evidence that Pakistani security agencies are involved in the recent wave of terrorism in the country," he said, adding that the Haqqani Network carried out the Paktika attack and "the group has the support of Pakistani intelligence agencies."

The presence of Pakistani Taliban fighters in some of Afghanistan's border regions has already emerged as a serious security challenge for the Pakistani forces as they routinely launch attacks from the other side of the border.

In a latest attack, militants from Afghanistan attacked a Pakistani border post in Bajaur tribal region this month and killed at least three soldiers.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are once involved in a blame game at a sensitive time when their cooperation is urgently needed for the success of Waziristan offensive and peace in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, Taliban militants have increased attacks since they have launched their so-called annual "Spring Offensive" codenamed "Khaiber."

Both countries have suffered a lot of human and financial losses in their war against armed groups.

Afghanistan would completely take control of its security apparatus in few months as NATO is ending its combat mission and is devising a final exit strategy. The country is in the process of the first-ever transfer of power to an elected president at a time when it still faces serious security challenges.

The war-torn country will have to opt for tension-free relations instead leveling allegations against its neighbor, analysts say.

As instability in Afghanistan directly affects Pakistan, the latter will have to address to the security concerns of the Afghan authorities. Both countries have bilateral forums, and that would be the best venues to narrow down their differences, analysts say.

Balochistan: Two women wounded in Mastung acid attack

A mysterious group is active throwing acid on women in Balochistan and at least six women have become victim in two different incidents in Quetta and Mastung since yesterday. According to the details, unknown persons threw acid on two women in a shopping centre in Balochistan’s Mastung district on Tuesday. Armed militants threw acid on the faces of women on Chandni road area of Mastung city. The injured women were rushed to nearby hospital for treatment and later shifted Quetta’s Bolan Medical Complex Hospital as there were no specialized burns treatment facility in Mastung. Mastung is considered to be one of the sensitive districts of Balochistan, where sectarian militants and Baloch insurgents operate actively in the area. The attack comes a day after four women were wounded in a similar incident in Sariab area of the provincial capital city, Quetta. According to sources, a group of people is strictly against women to come out of home is involved in acid attack activities, but so far the security agencies have failed to eradicate the group.

Six Al Qaeda leaders killed in US drone attack: report

At least six Al Qaeda commanders were killed during the recent US drone attack in the Dattakhel area of North Waziristan tribal region, a report published in The News quoted leadership of the group as saying.

The head of the Al Qaeda victory committee, Sanafi al-Nasr, who is based in Syria, confirmed via a social networking site that six members from the group were killed in the July 10 drone attack.

The drone attack of July 10 was the first one since the army launched Zarb-i-Azb in North Waziristan on June 15.

The dead also included Al Qaeda’s local commander Mustafa Abu Yazid. However, at the time of the strike, it could not be confirmed who were the others among the killed.

Nasr is a Saudi national whose real name is Abdul Mohsin Abdullah Ibrahim Al Sharikh, the report said, adding that he is responsible for developing and implementing Qaeda’s strategy and policies.

Nasr was based in the Waziristan tribal belt before relocating to Syria.

While tweeting on the Qaeda members, Nasr named three of them — Taj Al Makki, Abu Abdur Rahman Al Kuwaiti and Fayez Awda Al Khalidi. He did not name the three others.

Makki from Saudi Arabia, Rahman from Kuwait and Khalidi were mid-level commanders and were important to the terror group due to their association with Nasr, The News said in its report.

World Looks Anxiously To Pakistan, Afghanistan And Nigeria To Eradicate Polio

Devin Thorpe

Polio, once a global monster, is now a cornered rat, lashing out in hopes of repopulating. Reduced 99.9 percent from an average number of cases around 400,000 thirty years ago, the number of global polio cases has been cut to around 400 annually. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative hopes to see the final case of polio either late this year or early next year. All polio cases, regardless of where they are found, now originate from three countries: Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria. You can count the number of cases this year in Afghanistan or Nigeria on your fingers; the end of polio there is clearly within reach.

All three countries have been impacted by conflict in recent years, making the battle against polio at this critical stage challenging. The battle is so pitched that the World Health Organization or WHO, declared a “public health emergency” in an effort to garner greater cooperation among countries to prevent the spread of polio, especially from the three endemic countries.

Rotary, one of the partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, along with the CDC, WHO and UNICEF with tremendous financial support from The Gates Foundation, has brought the three national Polio Plus Committee heads from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria to its global headquarters in Evanston, Illinois this week. Forbes has received an exclusive opportunity to visit with them live on Tuesday, July 22, 2014 at 4:10 PM Eastern. Aziz Memon of Pakistan, Dr. Abdulrahman Olatunji Funsho of Nigeria and Mohammad Ishaq Niazmand of Afghanistan will join us then.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/devinthorpe/2014/07/21/forbes-exclusive-world-looks-anxiously-to-pakistan-afghanistan-and-nigeria-to-eradicate-polio/

Pakistan: Quetta Acid Attack : '' Crimes Of Ego ''

On Monday, four women were attacked in Quetta with acid thrown on their faces. This is a tragic habit that patriarchy has adopted in Pakistan and is at an all time high. The reasons behind the current attack are still undisclosed. These are not isolated events. In September 2011, four female teachers were attacked with acid in Quetta and no group claimed responsibility and no arrests have been made. Motivations range from male embarrassment, to proposal rejections to carrying out the will of God on “unchaste” women.

The most common type of acids used are sulfuric and nitric acid. A large social change that can give women country wide respect and right to life and choice seems to be impossible with the prevailing anti-feminist conservative patriarchal system. However, the smallest of controls on the sale, like the recording of a purchaser’s NIC can significantly reduce the incident of attacks. These chemicals are freely available. In Pakistan, Punjab has the highest reported number of acid and burn attacks. At least 65 per cent of the victims are women and girls and 15 per cent are children. The prosecution rate is only 35 percent. Though there was some discussion in Parliament in June to make a law against such crimes, there is no such movement in other provinces.

In this country, honor and “izzat”, mostly that of the male, have justified the physical and mental destruction of hundreds of women. There is consistent news of girls being buried alive, raped, killed, stoned and burned. Mostly the police either do not cooperate, or the girl’s family is too ashamed to demand justice. When subjective ideas like shame and honor hold more importance for society than human life and choice, the country hangs on the lowest rung of culture and civilisation. There should be no limit to the anger we feel for men who attack women in such a way; men with monstrous minds and evil egos who must be held to account for ravaging precious lives.

Pakistan: Fighting polio: Vaccinate displaced children, says WHO

The Express Tribune

Adviser to Chief Minister on Health Khwaja Salman Rafiq on Monday ordered that every child displaced from North Waziristan must be vaccinated against polio.

The adviser chaired a meeting to review anti-polio arrangements in the Punjab. He asked health officials to vaccinate children in Attock, Mianwali, Bhakkar and Dera Ghazi Khan on priority.

Rafiq asked the officials to immediately hold a meeting of the Provincial Task Force for Polio Eradication. Earlier, World Health Organisation representative Ubaidul Islam presented a report on the polio situation. He said a special polio drive should be launched in the cities where internally-displaced persons were staying.

He said a one-day polio campaign on July 17 in 23 “high risk” union councils of Lahore had been a huge success. He said 90 per cent of the designated areas were covered in the campaign.

Aslam Chaudhry from the Melinda Gates Foundation, Health Services Director General Zahid Pervaiz and Health Executive District Officer Zulfiqar Ali attended the meeting.

Health Secretary Ijaz Munir on Monday presided over a meeting to review progress on the development of Government Shahadra Teaching Hospital.

The secretary ordered posting of doctors to make the hospital functional by August 15. He said the hospital provided healthcare services not only to the people of Shahdara but also in adjoining areas.

Pakistan: Hindus, Buddhists and Baha’is among IDPs

The Express Tribune

A total of 165 families of non-Muslims have been displaced from North Waziristan, according to the latest count by the Fata Disaster Management Authority (FDMA). Data gathered by the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) states that 114 Christian, 29 Hindu, 10 Baha’i and 4 Buddhist families are among those displaced.

Additionally, 10 families have been classified as belonging to ‘other’ religions. “The number of ethnic or religious minorities who were living in North Waziristan may increase as we receive more data,” a senior FDMA official told The Express Tribune. Registration of those displaced from North Waziristan has now ended in Bannu and Peshawar. In the second phase of the registration process, the government says it aims to transfer compensation to the registered families while also pinpointing marginalised groups who require assistance.

NADRA has verified 82 families as permanent residents of NWA, while 51 have not been verified as their addresses on their CNICs do not match; 32 families have not been verified due to ‘family rejection’. The names and addresses of these families have been kept confidential for security reasons.

The earliest references to Buddhist settlements in North Waziristan come from historian and archeologist Dr Ahmad Hassan Dani, who discovered the first Kharosthi (an ancient script used by the Gandhara culture) script in North Waziristan as well as a stupa in Speenwam Tehsil in 1966.

A senior official from the provincial archeology department who wished to remain anonymous said there is scattered information regarding archeological sites in North Waziristan. “It is an unexplored area and my only hope is that the valuable treasures here survive the conflict,” he said.

The number of registered families has dropped from 92,702 to 49,857 after NADRA’s verification process. Acting DG FDMA Abdul Majeed said the number may rise to 60,000. A number of people registered themselves multiple times and those living outside the agency also registered themselves as IDPs, he said. Majeed added that arrangements have been made for women or children who have travelled without a male relative or family and tribal elders are assisting political agents in identifying those without CNICs. While the registration process has been hampered by a lack of preparedness and a political tussle between the provincial and federal governments, officials in Bannu say that even though there has been a delay in relief efforts, competition between the governments has results in an increasing cash flow to IDPs.