A veteran diplomat explains what is at risk for India with the crisis in its relations with the Muslim world

Special A veteran diplomat explains what is at risk for India with the crisis in its relations with the Muslim world
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An angry activist stomps on a poster of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) official in Mumbai, India, on June 6, 2022, during a protest against her blasphemous comments on Prophet Mohammed. (REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas)
Special A veteran diplomat explains what is at risk for India with the crisis in its relations with the Muslim world
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Indians demand the arrest of Nupur Sharma during a demonstration in the city of Ahmedabad on June 8, 2022. (AFP)
Special A veteran diplomat explains what is at risk for India with the crisis in its relations with the Muslim world
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Indian activists raise the national flag in Kolkata city on June 7, 2022, as they protest to demand the arrest of BJP party official Nupur Sharma for her blasphemous comments on Prophet Mohammed. (REUTERS)
Special A veteran diplomat explains what is at risk for India with the crisis in its relations with the Muslim world
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Pakistanis demonstrate in Karachi on June 7, 2022, against Nupur Sharma over her remarks about Prophet Mohammed. (Arif AlI / AFP)
Special A veteran diplomat explains what is at risk for India with the crisis in its relations with the Muslim world
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Indians demand the arrest of Nupur Sharma during a demonstration in the city of Ahmedabad on June 8, 2022. (AFP)
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Updated 12 June 2022

A veteran diplomat explains what is at risk for India with the crisis in its relations with the Muslim world

A veteran diplomat explains what is at risk for India with the crisis in its relations with the Muslim world
  • Talmiz Ahmad says India cannot do what it wishes to its religious minority and still enjoy good relations with Islamic countries
  • Ex-ambassador says the crisis has to be defused given India’s extensive economic interests in GCC countries

DUBAI: The Indian government led by Narendra Modi is facing arguably its toughest diplomatic test in the nine years it has been power, as the Islamic world boils with anger and Muslim countries voice outrage over disparaging remarks made by a ruling BJP party official about the Prophet Muhammad during a recent TV debate.

With at least 16 Islamic-majority countries expressing their objections via tweets, official statements and summons to Indian diplomats, the BJP was forced to suspend Nupur Sharma, the party’s national spokesperson, and expel another official for sharing a screenshot of her offensive comment in a tweet.

Earlier, protests in the northern Indian city of Kanpur against her comments left more than 40 people injured when the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh state, a Hindu nationalist hard-liner, came down heavily on the demonstrators.




Nupur Sharma, the BJP national spokesperson whose hate speech has caused clashes in India and protests by Muslim nations worldwide. 

Sharma’s remarks, made on May 27 during a TV debate on a dispute being heard in court, gained currency when a clip of her outburst was shared on Twitter by a journalist and fact-checker.

After her sacking, she wrote that she was withdrawing her remarks “unconditionally” and that it was “never my intention to hurt anyone’s religious feelings.” But many saw her apology as too little too late.

A number of retired Indian diplomats have since spoken out on the incident, warning that the crisis in India’s relations with the Islamic world is serious, and urging introspection by the Modi government instead of resorting to cosmetic measures.

 

The former diplomats say that the Modi government ought to realize that it cannot continue to do what it wishes at home with impunity and still enjoy good relations with Islamic or Western countries.

“On numerous occasions we have seen abuse of India’s Muslim community and attempts to erase the country’s Islamic heritage. There is a long tradition of other countries not interfering in the domestic affairs of another country, but when you get into abuse of the holy prophet, it is a no-go area,” Talmiz Ahmad, a retired Indian diplomat, author and political commentator, told Arab News. 

“At some point, people abroad will say: Enough is enough. I believe this time has come. You cannot persecute a certain community at home and also pretend you have a high moral stature abroad. It doesn’t work like that.”

India’s foreign ministry has issued a statement saying that the offensive tweets and comments “did not, in any way, reflect the views of the government. These are the views of fringe elements.”

 

The first task for the governing BJP is to defuse what the Indian opposition sees as a diplomatic crisis of its own making.

Calling for “respect for beliefs and religions,” the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it “reaffirms its permanent rejection of prejudice against the symbols of the Islamic religion, and refuses to prejudice all religious figures and symbols.”

The ministry welcomed the action taken by the BJP to suspend Sharma from her job.

Qatar demanded that India apologize for the “Islamophobic” comments and summoned the Indian ambassador to the foreign ministry on the second day of an official visit by India’s Vice president Venkaiah Naidu and a business delegation aimed at boosting trade.

Kuwait also summoned the Indian ambassador, while a supermarket in the Gulf state pulled Indian products from its shelves in protest at the comments. The UAE, Bahrain and Iran were among other Middle East countries traditionally friendly to India that made their objections known in various ways.

Egypt’s Al-Azhar Mosque condemned Sharma’s remarks as “a real terrorist action that helps to push the entire world to devastating crises and bloody wars,” and urged the UN to take action to protect minority rights in India amid what it described as “intensifying hatred and abuse toward Islam in India and against Muslims.”

Putting the official condemnations into context, Javed Ansari, a senior Indian political reporter and commentator, told Arab News: “Prophet Muhammad is Islam’s most revered and most sacred figure. The religion owes its existence to him, spreading the word of Allah.

“Hence Muslims worldwide, including in India, refuse to tolerate any disparaging remarks about him.

“While they accept in principle the right to free speech, they believe that free speech does not give anybody the right to insult or make disparaging remarks about the prophet. They believe that their sentiments and beliefs must be respected.”

For the Indian government, the danger of allowing the anger in the Muslim world to fester cannot be overstated. Annual trade between India and six Gulf Cooperation Council countries stands at $87 billion. Saudi Arabia is the second-largest exporter of oil to India, after Iraq, while Qatar supplies 40 percent of India’s natural gas requirements.  

At a macro level, according to Ahmad, remittances from the Indian community in the GCC countries bring in revenues that cover over a third of the Indian government’s annual oil import  bills. He describes India’s ties with the bloc encompassing trade, logistics, energy and investment as substantial, adding that for New Delhi the real danger lies not in a boycott of Indian goods but a possible adverse impact on the recruitment of Indian workers.

 

An estimated 8.5 million Indians work in the GCC bloc, constituting the largest expatriate community in each member country. Every year they send roughly $35 billion in remittances that support 40 million family members in India. It is said that each employed Indian in the Gulf has at least four or five individuals relying on their earnings abroad.

Noting that the relationship between the Gulf and India go back 5,000 years, Ahmad said it is unlikely that the diplomatic backlash will inflict long-term damage to the ties that bind India with Arab Gulf and other Muslim-majority countries.

“Indians are the number one community in the GCC and the majority community in certain countries, and that is because we have adopted accommodation and moderation, and completely rejected any involvement in local politics. This is the community’s strength,” Ahmad said.

 

“I personally feel there will be a degree of course correction. Certain advice and warnings have been given. I believe course correction is well on the way and likely to work on both sides for mutual advantage.”

Having said that, Ahmad, who served as India’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE during 2000-11, added: “In the Gulf, we have some of the most cherished friends of India. I wish that their senior leaders and diplomats had quietly counseled certain officials in India that there will be negative consequences for bilateral relations if continued abuse is directed at a certain community in the country.”

For its part, he said, “India’s ruling party should take a deep review of its domestic policies and convince India’s friends (in the Muslim world) that corrective action is being taken. We need to go back to the scenario of India as a pluralistic, multi-cultural and moderate nation that is democratic and accommodative."

On the upside, Ahmad says, India is fortunate to have “a towering intellectual and a very well experienced diplomat who is highly respected globally and at home” like Dr. S Jaishankar as the foreign affairs minister. 

“I am confident that he will be advising the powers that be that you cannot separate domestic from foreign policy. One impinges on the other,” he said.

Looking to the future, Ahmad said: “Our foreign and domestic policies must be in sync. We must go back to the core principles of this nation, which are pluralism, multiculturalism, moderation and accommodativeness.”

 


US, UK sanction 6 Syria-linked Captagon traffickers

US, UK sanction 6 Syria-linked Captagon traffickers
Updated 14 min 6 sec ago

US, UK sanction 6 Syria-linked Captagon traffickers

US, UK sanction 6 Syria-linked Captagon traffickers
  • 6 include cousins of Syrian President Bashar Assad and notorious Lebanese drug lynchpins
  • Washington and London also sanctioned two trading companies based in Lebanon

BEIRUT: The US and UK on Tuesday slapped sanctions on four Syrians and two Lebanese involved in manufacturing and trafficking the amphetamine drug Captagon, the two governments said. The six include cousins of Syrian President Bashar Assad and notorious Lebanese drug lynchpins.
Experts say Captagon is primarily produced in Syria and Lebanon, where packages containing millions of pills are smuggled into Gulf countries, Europe and elsewhere. The trade allegedly has strong ties to Assad and his associates, as well as key ally, the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group in neighboring Lebanon.
The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office statement announcing the sanctions said the Captagon industry is worth $57 billion to Assad, and has been a key source of revenue as Syria’ uprising turned-conflict continues for a 13th year. Assad’s brutal crackdown on protests in 2011 led to his global isolation, and his forces were accused of rampant torture, bombing civilian infrastructure, and using chemical weapons with support of key allies Russia and Iran.
“Syria has become a global leader in the production of highly addictive Captagon, much of which is trafficked through Lebanon,” said the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control director Andrea M. Gacki in the statement.
Gacki added that the trade’s revenues enable the government’s “continued repression on the Syrian people.”
Among the four Syrians sanctioned are two cousins of Assad, Samer and Wassim. According to the US Treasury’s statement, Samer oversees Captagon production in the northern coastal city of Lattakia in coordination with Hezbollah and the Syrian army’s elite Fourth Division. Meanwhile, Wassim has been described as a “key figure in the regional drug trafficking network,” while also leading a paramilitary group backing the Syrian army in the conflict.
Meanwhile, Syrian businessman Khalid Qaddour was also sanctioned for his alleged involvement in managing smuggling revenues and allegedly has close ties to President Assad’s brother Maher, who leads the Fourth Division and has allegedly profited off smuggling illicit drugs, mobile phones and cigarettes. Syrian militiaman Imad Abu Zureik was also sanctioned for running a militia group with ties to Syrian military intelligence in the south of the country that the US Treasury said controls the Nassib border crossing with Jordan. Abu Zureik was a former commander with Free Syria Army opposition forces.
In Lebanon, Washington and London sanctioned notorious weapons and drug smuggler Noah Zeiter, who for years has been on the run from Lebanese authorities. Zeiter prior to the conflict in Syria was known for producing and smuggling large amounts of cannabis and made occasional bombastic media appearances. Zeiter is close with Hezbollah and Syria’s Fourth Division.
Hassan Daqqou, a Lebanese-Syrian who the media frequently dubs “The King of Captagon,” was also sanctioned due to his links with Hezbollah and drug trafficking operations by the Syrian army’s Fourth Division. Daqqou was arrested in Lebanon in 2021 and in 2022 was sentenced to seven years of hard labor for producing and smuggling Captagon.
Washington and London also sanctioned two trading companies based in eastern Lebanon that Daqqou owns.

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US officials, Syria experts urge Biden administration to resist any Assad normalization process

The letter came amid a growing sense among many that Assad is slowly being welcomed back into the fold by other leaders
The letter came amid a growing sense among many that Assad is slowly being welcomed back into the fold by other leaders
Updated 28 March 2023

US officials, Syria experts urge Biden administration to resist any Assad normalization process

The letter came amid a growing sense among many that Assad is slowly being welcomed back into the fold by other leaders
  • Charles Lister, coordinator of the joint letter, said the official US message is ‘We will never normalize and we discourage normalization,’ but this is not the same as ‘Don’t you dare normalize’
  • The letter also highlighted the need for a formal ceasefire in Syria, which the signatories said would allow for a more efficient and coordinated aid effort and could ignite a political process

LONDON: A group of American former officials and experts on Syria have written to US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken urging their administration to push back against any efforts to normalize the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The signatories to the letter include former US special envoys to Syria Frederic Hof, James Jeffrey and Joel Rayburn; Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the former chief of US Central Command; John McLaughlin, a former acting director of the CIA; and William Roebuck, the former US deputy special envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat Daesh.

The missive outlines their concerns about Biden’s strategy for Syria, where a brutal civil war raging since 2011 has left half a million people dead and millions displaced in one of the world’s worst refugee crises.

“Unconditional regime normalization is not inevitable,” according to the authors of the letter. “Opposing regime normalization in word only is not enough, as tacitly allowing it is short-sighted and damaging to any hope for regional security and stability.”

Biden has previously indicated that the US will not normalize the Syrian regime and will not encourage its partners or other nations to do so. It comes amid a growing sense among many that Assad is slowly being welcomed back into the fold by other leaders, regionally and globally.

“(The US) message is, ‘We will never normalize and we discourage normalization,’” said Charles Lister, a senior fellow at Middle East Institute and coordinator of the letter. “None of that is, ‘Don’t you dare normalize with the regime.’”

The letter also highlighted the need for a formal ceasefire in Syria, which the authors said would allow for a more efficient and coordinated aid effort and could ignite a political process. Any normalization of the Assad regime, they added, would erode the “international community’s capacity to shape a political process aimed at meaningfully resolving the crisis.”

They continued: “None of the issues that caused the Syria conflict have been resolved, most notably Assad regime atrocities, and inability or refusal to reform.

“Many of the conflict’s symptoms are worsening, from human suffering, industrial-scale drug trafficking, refugee flows, terrorism, geopolitical conflict and ethnic and sectarian hostilities.

“The Biden administration’s foreign-policy priorities of great-power competition, international and Middle East stability, human rights, humanitarianism, or combating food insecurity are insufficiently advanced through the current Syria policy.”

Lister said that regional moves to normalize relations with the Assad regime are inevitable because the US and its allies have been lackluster and are “nowhere to be seen” when it comes to the Syria crisis. If the West is not willing to push for accountability and justice over Assad’s atrocities, he asked, “why should regional states?”

The letter also includes a number of recommendations, including an alternative strategy for humanitarian aid to the Syrian people in the aftermath of the Feb. 6 earthquakes that hit the north of the country and neighboring Turkiye, and increased pressure on the governments of other countries to repatriate the thousands of their citizens who fought alongside Daesh and are now detained, with their families, in Syrian camps.

Prominent Emirati professor Abdulkhaleq Abdulla said he believes the regional approach to Syria, while differing from the US and European policy, will ultimately win out through a process of re-engagement with Damascus.

He said a rapprochement could benefit the region because “more Arab presence probably will translate into less Iranian presence” in the corridors of power in Damascus, the UK’s Guardian newspaper reported.


Caution in crisis-hit Israel as talks set to start

Caution in crisis-hit Israel as talks set to start
Updated 28 March 2023

Caution in crisis-hit Israel as talks set to start

Caution in crisis-hit Israel as talks set to start
  • Embattled leader acknowledges divisions roiling the nation, announces delay for the legislation
  • Critics say the legislative package would hobble the country’s system of checks and balances

TEL AVIV: Caution prevailed in Israel Tuesday ahead of the first talks between the government and opposition after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paused controversial judicial reforms which sparked a general strike and mass protests.
With the crisis far from over, President Isaac Herzog’s office said he had invited representatives of the ruling coalition and the two main opposition parties “for a first dialogue meeting” at his residence from 7:30 p.m. (1630 GMT).
After three months of increasing tensions that split the nation, Netanyahu bowed to pressure in the face of a nationwide walkout Monday which hit airports, hospitals and more, while tens of thousands of reform opponents rallied outside parliament in Jerusalem.
“Out of a will to prevent a rupture among our people, I have decided to pause the second and third readings of the bill” to allow time for dialogue, the prime minister said in a broadcast.
The decision to halt the legislative process marked a dramatic U-turn for the premier, who just a day earlier announced he was sacking his defense minister who had called for the very same step.
The move was greeted with skepticism in Israel, with the president of the Israel Democracy Institute think-tank remarking it does not amount to a peace deal.
“Rather, it’s a cease-fire perhaps for regrouping, reorganizing, reorienting and then charging — potentially — charging ahead,” Yohanan Plesner told journalists.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid reacted warily, saying Monday he wanted to be sure “that there is no ruse or bluff.”
A joint statement Tuesday from Lapid’s party and that of Benny Gantz, the former defense minister, said such talks will stop immediately “if the law is put on the Knesset’s (parliament’s) agenda.”
The opposition had previously refused to negotiate over the reforms — which would hand politicians more power over the judiciary — until the legislative process was stopped.
“The goal is to reach an agreement,” Netanyahu said in a statement Tuesday.
Activists who have led nearly three months of protests against the reform package vowed to continue their rallies.
“This is another attempt of Netanyahu trying to gaslight the Israeli public in order to weaken the protest and then enact a dictatorship,” the Umbrella Movement of demonstrators said.
“We will not stop the protest until the judicial coup is completely stopped,” it added in a statement.
The crisis has revealed deep rifts within Netanyahu’s fledgling coalition, an alliance with far-right and ultra-Orthodox parties.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich asserted “there will be no turning back” on the judicial overhaul, in a tweet Monday.
Fellow far-right cabinet member, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, had pressed his supporters to rally in favor of the reforms.
Ben-Gvir’s Jewish Power party revealed on Monday that the decision to delay the legislation involved an agreement to expand the minister’s portfolio after he threatened to quit if the overhaul was put on hold.
Writing in the left-wing daily Haaretz, political correspondent Yossi Verter said the pause was “a victory for the protesters, but the one who really bent Netanyahu and trampled on him is Itamar Ben-Gvir.”
The affair has hit the coalition’s standing among the Israeli public, just three months after it took office.
Netanyahu’s Likud party has dipped seven points, according to a poll by Israel’s Channel 12 which predicted the government would lose its majority in the 120-seat parliament if elections were held.
The fate of the ousted defense minister, Yoav Gallant, was unknown on Tuesday with speculation in Israeli media that he could be reinstated.
Gallant, who had warned the crisis threatened national security, on Monday welcomed “the decision to stop the legislative process in order to conduct dialogue,” his team said.


Photographer Platon and UN produce film to humanize refugees and shed light on their plight

Photographer Platon and UN produce film to humanize refugees and shed light on their plight
Updated 28 March 2023

Photographer Platon and UN produce film to humanize refugees and shed light on their plight

Photographer Platon and UN produce film to humanize refugees and shed light on their plight
  • The 18-minute movie, ‘Portrait of a Stranger,’ features interviews with more than 20 refugees who fled conflicts and persecution in various parts of the world
  • It premiered at the Movies That Matter International Human Rights Film Festival, which is taking place this week in The Hague

THE HAGUE: British photographer and storyteller Platon and the UN Refugee Agency have unveiled a collaborative film and multimedia project that explores the plight of refugees.

“Portrait of a Stranger,” an 18-minute film that features interviews with more than 20 refugees who fled conflicts and persecution around the world, premiered at the Movies That Matter International Human Rights Film Festival, which is taking place this week in The Hague, the Emirates News Agency reported.

Its creators said it seeks to reframe the narratives surrounding people who are forced to flee their homes, while also examining the universal desire to be free, safe, respected and valued, and to belong.

The refugees who appear in the film represent a diverse range of ages, nationalities, ethnicities and personal circumstances. Audiences are asked to look beyond the differences between people and instead focus on what we have in common.

“Living in exile may be their life circumstance but it is not what defines them,” said Platon. “I hope the images and voices of the refugees in this film will help audiences focus on the shared humanity that unites us, rather than the barriers that divide us — not only for these particular refugees but for all people forced to flee around the world.”

In 2022, more than 100 million people were displaced, globally.

“This film and these images are powerful reminders of who refugees really are,” said UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. “They are people like your neighbor, your friend, your colleague, like you and me, each with our own personality, our hopes, our dreams.

“By amplifying the voices of refugees, the film offers an important reality check to counter the negative public discourse we often hear about people forced to flee.”


US will not back off Syria mission despite deadly attacks – White House

US will not back off Syria mission despite deadly attacks – White House
Updated 28 March 2023

US will not back off Syria mission despite deadly attacks – White House

US will not back off Syria mission despite deadly attacks – White House
  • Syria’s foreign ministry on Sunday condemned the US air strikes
  • ‘There’s been no change in the US footprint in Syria as a result of what happened the last few days’

WASHINGTON: The United States will not back away from its nearly eight-year-old deployment to Syria, where it is battling the remnants of Daesh, despite attacks on US forces there last week by Iran-backed militia, the White House said on Monday.
A one-way attack drone struck a US base in Syria on March 23, killing an American contractor, injuring another and wounding five US troops.
That triggered US retaliatory air strikes and exchanges of fire that a Syrian war monitoring group said killed three Syrian troops, 11 Syrian fighters in pro-government militias and five non-Syrian fighters who were aligned with the government.
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said he was not aware of any additional attacks over the past 36 hours but cautioned, “We’re going to stay vigilant.”
Kirby also referred to President Joe Biden’s remarks on Friday, in which Biden warned Iran that the United States would act forcefully to protect Americans.
“There’s been no change in the US footprint in Syria as a result of what happened the last few days,” Kirby said, adding the mission against Daesh would continue.
“We’re not going to be deterred ... by these attacks from these militant groups.”
Syria’s foreign ministry on Sunday condemned US strikes, saying Washington had lied about what was targeted and pledging to “end the American occupation” of its territory.
Iran’s foreign ministry also condemned the strikes, accusing US forces of targeting “civilian sites.”
US forces first deployed into Syria during the Obama administration’s campaign against Daesh, partnering with a Kurdish-led group called the Syrian Democratic Forces. There are about 900 US troops in Syria, most of them in the east.
Prior to the latest spate of attacks, US troops in Syria had been attacked by Iranian-backed groups about 78 times since the beginning of 2021, according to the US military.
Iran has been a major backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad during Syria’s 12-year conflict.
Iran’s proxy militias, including the Lebanese group Hezbollah and pro-Tehran Iraqi groups, hold sway in swathes of eastern, southern and northern Syria and in suburbs around the capital, Damascus.