India’s defense ties with Middle East deepen as security engagements on rise

India’s defense ties with Middle East deepen as security engagements on rise
On Feb. 20, INS Sumedha, a patrol vessel of the Indian Navy, arrived in Abu Dhabi to participate in the Naval Defense Exhibition and International Defense Exhibition. (Indian Navy)
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Updated 05 March 2023

India’s defense ties with Middle East deepen as security engagements on rise

India’s defense ties with Middle East deepen as security engagements on rise
  • In past two weeks, Indian forces engaged with Saudi, Omani and UAE counterparts
  • Defense engagements deepen as the US downsizes its presence in the region

NEW DELHI: India is deepening its defense ties with the Middle East, experts said on Sunday, following a number of recent security engagements with Gulf countries.

In the past few weeks alone, Indian forces have engaged with their counterparts in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman.

On Feb. 20, INS Sumedha, a patrol vessel of the Indian Navy, arrived in Abu Dhabi to participate in the Naval Defense Exhibition and International Defense Exhibition.

A week later, eight fighters, tankers and transport planes of the Indian Air Force were extended hospitality by the Royal Saudi Air Force for refueling and interaction with Saudi airmen.

On Feb. 28, an Indian submarine made a call for an operational turnaround in the Salalah port of Oman.

Indian defense engagements with the Middle East have been on the rise for the past few years but have deepened lately as the US is downsizing its presence in the region.

“The US is minimizing its security role in the region and there is a vacuum,” said Zakir Hussain, a Middle East expert and former fellow of the Indian Council of World Affairs in New Delhi.

One of the reasons India is trying to fill this “vacuum” is also to balance the influence of its rival China.

“The China factor is playing a key role in attracting India to engage in defense and security affairs,” Hussain told Arab News. “China is a growing influence in the region. It has (prompted) India also to increase its presence.”

But the three Gulf countries are important to India also due to geostrategic reasons, with access to their ports.

“The 21st century is known as the maritime century, and if India is not increasing defense cooperation with these countries, then merely economic cooperation is not going to succeed,” Hussain added. “It is not surprising, and it is the demand of the time.”

For defense expert and senior journalist Ranjit Kumar, the relationship between India and Gulf countries was like one of “distant neighbors,” while now is the time to “play a bigger role.”

Kumar said: “Till now, Arab countries have aligned with either the American or Russian camp. Now, both of them have already started withdrawing from the area. The Arab world finds India a natural partner.”

Security engagements are also vital for India’s huge diaspora residing in the region.
Nearly 9 million Indians live and work in the Middle East, with some 3.4 million in the UAE and 2.5 million in Saudi Arabia, and send back home about $80 billion in remittances every year.

“The Arab world is a major source of remittance revenue for the Indian economy. That reason is also important in this context,” Kumar said.

“India needs peace and stability in that region for the welfare of the overseas Indians and its economy.”

The increased security cooperation is also reflecting diplomatic efforts and the strengthening of bilateral ties, especially with Saudi Arabia.

“Military diplomacy is extremely important between India and Saudi Arabia…All the three services in India now are engaging with Saudi Arabia in defense, which is an extremely important moment for bilateral ties between the two countries,” said Kabir Taneja, strategic studies fellow and Middle East expert at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi.

“Defense ties are always a good barometer to see how bilateral ties are going between two states. Defense is something that is important for India and it’s also very critically important for West Asia.”

He sees the increasing defense engagements as aligned with changing economic relations. India, he said, wishes to change the perception that it is a country that solely provides labor for development projects in the Middle East.

“India wants to be seen as an investor, as an economic power where the big sovereign funds of the region like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE are attracted to India as an economy,” Taneja said.

“The Arab world is important for India economically right now…and India’s economy is now very attractive to Gulf investments.”


Another powerful Pacific storm hits soggy, snowy California

Another powerful Pacific storm hits soggy, snowy California
Updated 29 March 2023

Another powerful Pacific storm hits soggy, snowy California

Another powerful Pacific storm hits soggy, snowy California
  • Damage since the onslaught began in late December includes buildings crushed by snow, flooding of communities and farm fields and homes threatened by landslides

SACRAMENTO, California: A powerful weather system from the Gulf of Alaska pushed into Northern California on Tuesday, bringing more wind, rain and snow to a state battered by months of storms.
Forecasters warned of heavy snow in coastal mountains and the Sierra Nevada, where accumulations up to 4 feet (1.2 meters) were possible, highway chain requirements took effect and a backcountry avalanche warning was issued for the greater Lake Tahoe area.
The National Weather Service said the storm was expected to pull a plume of Pacific moisture into California as it tracked south, but the rainfall was not expected to be as intense as the atmospheric rivers that impacted the state in recent weeks.
After a dozen previous atmospheric rivers and blizzards fueled by arctic air, the water content of California’s Sierra Nevada snowpack is more than double normal overall, and nearly triple in the southern Sierra.
Damage since the onslaught began in late December includes buildings crushed by snow, flooding of communities and farm fields and homes threatened by landslides.
Crews on Monday tore down a historic pier in Santa Cruz County that was in danger of collapse. The 500-foot-long (152-meter) wooden pier at Seacliff State Beach was severely damaged by big surf in January. Built in 1930, the pier connected the beach to SS Palo Alto, a grounded Word War I-era steamship known as the “cement ship.”
On the positive side, the storms have brought much-needed water. The state’s two largest reservoirs, Shasta and Oroville, have risen above their historical averages to date after being significantly depleted.
Cities and farmers that rely on the Central Valley Project, the federally managed water system, got a big boost in their allocations Tuesday.
More than 250 agencies — mostly irrigation districts — contract with the federal government for certain amounts of water each year, and the US Bureau of Reclamation announces each February how much of those contracts can be filled, updating as conditions change.
The storm boost in supply means that many providers of irrigation water supplied by the CVP will see the amount they can draw jump from as little as 35 percent of their contracted total to 80 percent. Providers for city and industrial uses will be allowed 100 percent of their historic use instead of just 75 percent, the bureau said.
In Southern California, the Metropolitan Water District is bringing water from the north to fill its massive Diamond Valley Lake, a reservoir that had diminished to 60 percent of capacity after three years of drought. It’s expected to be full again by year’s end.
“Nature gave us a lifeline,” MWD General Manager Adel Hagekhalil said Monday as officials watched water pour into the reservoir.

 


Russian embassy says US wants to play down involvement in Nord Stream blasts

Russian embassy says US wants to play down involvement in Nord Stream blasts
Updated 29 March 2023

Russian embassy says US wants to play down involvement in Nord Stream blasts

Russian embassy says US wants to play down involvement in Nord Stream blasts
  • The Russian embassy in the US said in a statement posted on its Telegram messaging platform that Washington is doing “everything possible” to prevent “impartial efforts” establish circumstances around the explosions

WASHINGTON: The Russian embassy in the US said on Wednesday Washington is seeking to play down damaging information about the alleged involvement of its intelligence services in last year’s blasts that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
Moscow failed on Monday to get the UN Security Council to ask for an independent inquiry into explosions in September that ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines connecting Russia and Germany and spewed gas into the Baltic Sea.
Russian officials reacted angrily and the Kremlin said on Tuesday it would keep demanding an international investigation.
The Russian embassy in the US said in a statement posted on its Telegram messaging platform that Washington is doing “everything possible” to prevent “impartial efforts” establish circumstances around the explosions.
“We see this as an obvious attempt ... to play down information from reputable journalists that is damaging for the United States about the likely direct involvement of American intelligence services,” the embassy said in the statement posted in Russian.
In a February blog post, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh cited an unidentified source as saying that US navy divers had destroyed the pipelines with explosives on the orders of President Joe Biden.
The White House dismissed Hersh’s report as “utterly false and complete fiction.” Norway said the allegations were “nonsense.”

 

 


Woman born in Syria makes history as first hijab-wearing Superior Court judge in the US

Nadia Kahf joins other community religious and political leaders at a news conference in Jersey City, New Jersey. (AFP)
Nadia Kahf joins other community religious and political leaders at a news conference in Jersey City, New Jersey. (AFP)
Updated 29 March 2023

Woman born in Syria makes history as first hijab-wearing Superior Court judge in the US

Nadia Kahf joins other community religious and political leaders at a news conference in Jersey City, New Jersey. (AFP)
  • Nadia Kahf took her oath with her hand on a copy of the Qur’an inherited from her grandmother when she was sworn in at the Passaic County Courthouse in New Jersey
  • A day later, another woman who wears the Islamic headscarf, family law attorney Dalya Youssef, was also sworn in as a Superior Court judge in Somerset County, also New Jersey

LONDON: Nadia Kahf, an attorney who was born in Syria, made history when she became the first Superior Court judge in the US who wears a hijab.

Kahf was nominated by New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy last year, local media reported. Community leaders, including mayors, council members, school board members and leaders of the New Jersey Muslim Lawyers Association, signed a letter in May calling on Senator Kristin Corrado to advance the nomination. More than 700 people also signed an online petition in support of her nomination.

Kahf, the third Muslim woman to serve as US Superior Court judge, took the oath during her swearing-in ceremony last week with her hand on a copy of the Qur’an she inherited from her grandmother.

“I am proud to represent the Muslim and Arab communities in New Jersey in the US,” she said during the ceremony. “I want the younger generation to see that they can practice their religion without fear that they can be who they are. Diversity is our strength, it is not our weakness”

As a lawyer, Kahf specialized in family law and also handled immigration cases. Since 2003, she has been on the board of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights organization.

The day after Kahf’s swearing-in ceremony another woman who wears the Islamic headscarf, family law attorney Dalya Youssef, was also sworn in as a Superior Court judge, this time in Somerset County, also New Jersey.

 

 


Pence must testify in Jan. 6 attack probe, judge rules -source

Pence must testify in Jan. 6 attack probe, judge rules -source
Updated 29 March 2023

Pence must testify in Jan. 6 attack probe, judge rules -source

Pence must testify in Jan. 6 attack probe, judge rules -source
  • In February, a source told Reuters Pence was preparing to resist a grand jury subpoena to secure his testimony

WASHINGTON: A federal judge has ruled that former US Vice President Mike Pence must testify to a grand jury about conversations he had with former President Donald Trump leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, a source familiar with the ruling said on Tuesday.
In a ruling that remains under seal, the judge also said that Pence can still decline to answer questions related to Jan. 6, the source said, adding that Pence can still appeal the ruling. The appeal option is being evaluated, the source said.
The source, confirming reports by CNN and NBC, said the judge’s decision compels Trump’s former vice president, and potential challenger for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, to appear before the federal grand jury but shields him from testifying about Jan. 6, 2021, itself.
Asked during an interview on Newsmax on Tuesday as to whether he would appeal the order, Pence said there was a limited amount he could say on the proceedings.
“I’m pleased that the court accepted our argument and recognized that the Constitution’s provision about speech and debate does apply to the vice president,” he said.
“But the way they sorted that out and the requirements of my testimony going forward are a subject of our review right now and I’ll have more to say about that in the days ahead.”
In February, a source told Reuters Pence was preparing to resist a grand jury subpoena to secure his testimony.
Ahead of the Jan. 6 events, Trump had repeatedly lambasted Pence, publicly and privately, for refusing to try to prevent Congress from certifying Biden’s win in the 2020 election, sources told Reuters at the time.
Representatives for Special Prosecutor Jack Smith, who is leading the US Department of Justice’s investigation into Trump and his allies’ alleged efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, could not be immediately reached for comment.

 


Reports that billionaire British Muslim brothers plan $9.8bn takeover of Subway

Billionaire British Muslim Issa brothers are considering an £8 billion ($9.87 billion) takeover of sandwich chain Subway
Billionaire British Muslim Issa brothers are considering an £8 billion ($9.87 billion) takeover of sandwich chain Subway
Updated 28 March 2023

Reports that billionaire British Muslim brothers plan $9.8bn takeover of Subway

Billionaire British Muslim Issa brothers are considering an £8 billion ($9.87 billion) takeover of sandwich chain Subway
  • Mohsin and Zuber Issa, who started their business empire with one petrol station in the Greater Manchester area in 2001, are said to be set to buy the chain

LONDON: The billionaire British Muslim Issa brothers are considering an £8 billion ($9.87 billion) takeover of sandwich chain Subway, according to media reports.

Mohsin and Zuber, who started their business empire with one petrol station in the Greater Manchester area in 2001, are said to be set to buy the chain, which had more than 37,000 outlets in over 100 countries in 2021.

The brothers co-own the Euro Garages firm, along with TDR Capital, which operates more than 6,600 petrol stations globally, and already has Subway outlets at 340 of its locations.

“EG Group have felt for a while that Subway treated them the same way as other franchise partners and their massive growth hadn’t been appreciated, so what better way to show who’s boss than owning them?” a source told British newspaper The Sun.

Another source told the newspaper it would “make good sense” for the brothers to complete the purchase.

The EG Group completed a £6.8 billion takeover of supermarket chain Asda in 2021 and is also KFC’s largest franchise owner in Europe.

It also owns the restaurant chain Leon and helped to launch the UK’s first drive-thru Indian street food outlet in the British town of Bolton.