MALI, 30 November 2020, (TON): The situation in Mali further deteriorated as cities of Kidal, Gao and Menaka in northern Mali were hit by simultaneous attacks on Monday against military camps housing international forces.

Unnamed United Nations official said that such attacks are frequent to bring the foreign forces in action against the local population of northern and central Mali.  

It has been reported that over ten explosions coming from the direction of the camp for UN peacekeepers and the foreign forces were heard. Since the launching of French Operation Barkhane, the situation has worsened in Mali.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, however, the locals claim that it is the handiwork of foreign agencies to remain employed on the United Nations duties and compel foreign forces to remain deployed in the area of northern and central Mali to allow minority communities flourish.

KABUL, 30 November 2020 (TON): The international community has imposed stricter conditions on the Afghan government in exchange for continued aid to the country, The Afghan Ministry of Finance (MoF) has confirmed.

Nazir Kabiri, CEO of Biruni Institute, a research organization in Kabul, said that in the future the Afghan government will need to brief the international community about programs that it had undertaken in the past year and also its programs for the next year in order to get aid from the donors.

Experts believe that the 15 percent reduction in the global aid to Afghanistan at the recent Geneva Conference on Afghanistan indicates that this was the last large-scale donation to the country.

The Afghan Ministry of Finance (MoF) has also confirmed that this time the international community has imposed more restricted conditions in exchange for aid.

“This time the donors will conduct their assessments from the achievements on an annual basis, therefore, with the reduction in aid, the issues must be tackled in an appropriate way,” said Nazir Kabiri, CEO of Biruni Institute.

The international community at the Afghanistan Conference 2020 in Geneva earlier this week renewed their financial and political commitment to Afghanistan for another four years.

The 2020 Afghanistan Conference was the last pledging conference of the Transformation Decade (2015-24), which aims to take the country towards self-reliance, with the international community and Afghan nation renewing commitments to the development and stability of Afghanistan up to 2024.

Over 100 countries and international organizations participated in the two-day conference.

Although, an exact amount of money pledged by the donors is not clear so far, the Afghan government last week said that it expected that the international community will pledge $4 billion in aid to Afghanistan per year as part of its financial assistance for civilian purposes.

Experts say that with the consideration of -5 percent economic growth rate, 80 percent poverty and 45 percent unemployment, it will be difficult for Afghanistan to achieve self-reliance by 2025.

WASHINGTON, 30 November, 2020, (TON): White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and his team are heading to Saudi Arabia and Qatar this week to secure more diplomatic agreements in the Middle East.

According to U.S. officials talks are aimed at resolving the dispute between the neighbouring Gulf countries, as the region is simmering with tension after the killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist.

A senior US official told Reuters news agency that Kushner is to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Saudi city of Neom, and the emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in that country in the coming days.

According to officials Mr. Kushner and his team are hoping to use their political leverage to advance issues of U.S. interest, with a particular focus on resolving the three-year-old rift between Qatar and its Gulf neighbours, including Riyadh.

The trip could mark the last time that Mr. Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, meets as a White House official with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman after a four-year relationship that brought substantive political changes in the Middle East.

Last month senior Saudi official signalled that there had been some progress in attempts to resolve three-year dispute, saying that Riyadh was “committed to finding a solution”.

Earlier this month, Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said there were no winners in the Gulf crisis and that Doha was hopeful it will end “at any moment.”

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic ties and imposed a land, sea and air blockade on Qatar in 2017, accusing Doha of “supporting terrorism”, a charge Doha denies and rejected the list of 13 demands.

DOHA, 30 November, 2020, (TON): A breakthrough was reported from Doha as the two negotiating teams have agreed to include the US-Taliban deal, UN endorsements for Afghan peace process, commitments of the negotiating teams and will of the Afghan people as the base for upcoming negotiations.

Negotiators from both sides of the Afghan peace negotiations have conflicting accounts about the reports of recent progress in their talks.

However, sources close to the Taliban have said that a continued disagreement could push the talks into a deadlock.

Earlier, a Taliban spokesperson Mohammad Naeem, tweeted that negotiators from both sides for the Afghan peace process have agreed on procedural rules with 21 items on the 15th of November 2020, for the talks to proceed.

However, the republic’s team have said that the procedural rules are still not finalized and the preface needs more explanation.

Dawa Khan Menapal , a deputy spokesman to President Ashraf Ghani said “The delegation of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is there with full authority in hand. The foundation of the talks are the Constitution of Afghanistan and the proposals made by the Consultative Loya Jirga on Peace.”

The Taliban insists that if a dispute emerges during the negotiations, the solution must be sought using the Hanafi jurisprudence and that the foundation for the talks should be the peace deal that the group signed with the US in late February.

But the Afghan republic's team has rejected the Taliban’s demands and has suggested some alternatives.

JERUSALEM, 30 November 2020, (TON): In October, the Israeli magistrate court of Jerusalem ruled to evict 12 of the 24 Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah and to give their homes to Israeli Jewish settlers. The court also ruled that each family must pay 70,000 shekels ($20,000) in fees to cover the settlers’ legal expenses.

For at least a dozen Palestinian families living in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, the threat of eviction from their homes looms over their heads, paralysing any thoughts of the future.

The families were given 30 days to file an appeal, but most expressed little hope for a ruling in their favour, saying the Israeli judiciary is no more than an instrument of the Israeli occupation policy of forcibly displacing and erasing the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem.

“Since the eviction order, we’ve been living with the daily anxiety of not knowing when the Israeli army will come and evict us from our home,” said Ahmad Hammad, a resident of Sheikh Jarrah.

Sheikh Jarrah, located on the slopes of Mount Scopus just north of the Old City, is home to 3,000 Palestinians, all refugees who were ethnically cleansed from their homes in other parts of historical Palestine during the 1948 Nakba.

Israel’s settlements and eviction of Palestinians violate international humanitarian law, which prohibits the occupying power from transferring its civilian population into the territories it occupies. As Israel’s targeting of Jerusalem is continuing at a heightened pace.

TAGRAY, 30 November 2020, (TON): The forces from Ethiopia’s Tigray region claimed they shot down a military Ethiopian military aircraft and also retook a town from federal forces on Sunday.

Debretsion Gebremichael, leader of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) confirmed that that have captured the pilot of the military aircraft.

Earlier, on Saturday Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared victory in the northern region and claimed that federal troops had taken control of the Tigrayan capital Mekelle.

Police then issued arrest warrants for 17 military officers on charges of treason and embezzlement of public properties, state-affiliated Fana TV reported. Arrest warrants already exist for 117 other senior officers with alleged ties to the TPLF.

NEW DELHI, 30 November 2020, (TON): The OIC report on its activities referred to Jammu and Kashmir situation has condemned Indian Illegal annexation of Jammu and Kashmir, to which India shamelessly denied and rejected.

The report of the OIC Secretary General on its activities submitted to the 47th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers referred to the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and said, “The decision of the Indian government on 5 August 2019 towards changing the demographic and geographic composition of the territory, and the continuous blockade and restrictions together with human rights abuses, had awakened renewed efforts of the international community towards a resolution of the conflict”.

However, India has denied their blatant actions, and rejected the criticism of its Kashmir policy by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation by saying, “We strongly and categorically reject the factually incorrect, gratuitous and unwarranted references to India in resolutions adopted by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).”

The resolution passed by OIC condemned the state-sponsored terrorism and crimes against humanity by Indian occupation forces against the Kashmiri people. However, Indian attempts to deny illegal occupation and unlawful moves in Jammu and Kashmir is a travesty of history. Modi has ignored many resolutions on the internationally recognised dispute with Pakistan over sovereign control of the Kashmir region. Modi claims of “new era” is only a new calamity for Kashmiris.

NEW DELHI, 30 November 2020, (TON):  India is hosting the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) virtual meeting of the heads of governments. The virtual summit will be chaired by Vice Indian President M Venkaiah Naidu. It is being participated by 7 Prime Ministers from the member states of SCO including Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Apart from the SCO member states, the four observer states of the SCO; Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia will also participate in the summit.

SCO has 8 member states and 4 observer states. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan will not participate in the summit.

 Pakistan, which is a member of SCO will be represented by the Parliamentary Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Shanghai Cooperation has potential to play its vital, important and positive role in implementing, prompting, enhancing and cooperating in the area of peace, trade, security and other bilateral issues.

The summit will end with the adoption of a joint communique.

LADAKH, 30 November 2020, (TON): Indian and Iranian splinter groups in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s Ladakh are trying to give the newly declared Union Territory (UT) a separate status to cut all its links with Jammu and Kashmir State. There has been increase case of settling of foreigners in Ladak and Jammu regions to change the demography. Indian agencies are settling a particular Muslim sect in the Ladakh and extending official funding to strengthen their religious, social and political institutions.

Speaking on the occasion, the official of Imam Khomeini Memorial Trust, Kargil-Ladakh said that they would not leave any stone unturned to get the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution in extended in Ladakh. Ladakh assumed the UT status on 31 October 2019 and now much has to be achieved to link it with people across the border.

Meanwhile, member of the Rajya Sabha in Parliament Mrs Ambika Soni pleaded strongly for extending provisions of the Sixth Schedule of Indian Constitution to the UT of Ladakh. The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) has also recommended to the Government that Ladakh be declared a Tribal area under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.

TEHRAN, 30 November 2020, (TON): Iran will give a “calculated and decisive” response to the killing of its top nuclear scientist, said a top adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, while a hard-line newspaper suggested Tehran’s revenge should include striking the Israeli port, city of Haifa.

Head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations Kamal Kharrazi, said in a statement “Undoubtedly, Iran will give a calculated and decisive answer to the criminals who took Martyr Mohsen Fakhrizadeh from the Iranian nation.”

Fakhrizadeh, long suspected by Western and Israeli government of masterminding a secret nuclear weapons program, was ambushed on a highway near Tehran on Friday and gunned down in his car.

Iran’s clerical and military rulers have blamed the Iran’s long-time enemy, Israel, for the killing. Iran has in the past accused Israel of killing several Iranian nuclear scientists since 2010.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office has declined to comment on the killing.

Iranian hardline media called for tough revenge. Editor-in-chief Saadollah Zarei in an opinion piece wrote “the attack should be carried out in such a way that in addition to destroying the facilities, it should also cause heavy human casualties.”

Earlier, Soleimani’s death led to Iran retaliating with a ballistic missile barrage that injured dozens of American troops in Iraq. Tehran also has forces at its disposal all around Israel but they may face political and military difficulties by striking Israel this time. As Iran is already in difficult situation added by this anger and frustration; and have nothing to lose much. So, they may intend to carry out the strike.