New Delhi, 5 February, 2021 (TON): A written letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla by at least 12 MPs from nine opposition parties, requesting him to take necessary steps to protect their rights and allow a separate discussion on the farmers’ issue in the Parliament, saying, the border of Ghazipur (Delhi) seems like the “border between India and Pakistan”.

Ghazipur is the border where farmers are protesting.

These are among the parliamentarians who were blocked by the Delhi police from meeting the agitated farmers at Ghazipur.

The MPs who signed the letter to Birla included DMK’s K. Kanimozhi and Tiruchi Siva, Trinamool Congress’ Saugata Roy, Nationalist Congress Party’s Supriya Sule, Shiromani Akali Dal’s Harsimrat Kaur Badal, RSP’s N.K. Premchandran, CPI’s M. Selvaraj, National Conference’s Hasnain Masoodi, VCK’s Thol Thirumavalavan and Ravi Kumar, and CPI-M’s A.M. Ariff and S. Venkateshan.

In the letter, the MPs requested the Speaker to take such steps that “deem fit and proper to you to protect the rights of the elected Members of Parliament and also allow a separate discussion on the farmers’ issues in the Parliament”.

The parliamentarians said, “Sir, you know that the issue of farmers’ agitation demanding repealing of three farm laws passed by the Centre is agitating the country. Farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have been doing dharna on the borders of Delhi since more than two months. We have been told that the water supply and electricity to the farmers’ tents have been disconnected. Internet services stopped; portable toilets have been taken away.”

The government has taken a repressive attitude towards the farmers in order to stifle their agitation, they said in the letter.

“The farmers’ issue was raised in the Parliament and opposition parties have demanded a separate discussion on the farmers’ agitation which the government has not agreed to so far. We have been receiving messages from the agitating farmers about their plight and pathetic condition, especially of women and children,” the letter said.

“This morning at around 10 a.m. all of us went to the Ghazipur border in a bus,” said the MPs, adding, “We wanted to physically meet the farmers…The police officers who were present at the border rudely asked us to turn back, showing that there were prohibitory orders.”

“We stayed on for some time, trying to persuade the police to let us go inside. But ultimately we failed and came back after an hour. The impression we got at the Delhi -Ghazipur border is like the border between India and Pakistan,” it added.

“Are we living in a police state where elected representatives of the people cannot meet farmers’ representatives? We strongly protest the action of Delhi police in preventing us from meeting the agitating farmers on Delhi borders. We would like the farmers’ issues be raised in the Parliament as also the attitude of the Delhi Police, which is under the Union Home Ministry,” the MPs said in the letter.

Many leaders are of the view that the condition of the farmers resembled that of the prisoners in a jail.

LONDON, 4 February, 2021 (TON): A Syrian refugee, who fled his country’s conflict in 205, is to stand in Germany’s general elections this September.

Tareq Alaows, 31, is set to run for the Green Party in Oberhausen and Dinslaken, an industrial constituency in the country’s west.

“I want to become the first person who escaped from Syria to enter the Bundestag (Parliament) and lend a political voice to the hundreds of thousands of fugitives who are living with us today,” he said.

Alaows, has not yet earned his German citizenship, studied law in Damascus and Aleppo, and protested against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime during the conflict. He worked for the Red Crescent and documented the regime’s litany of rights abuses.

Alaows fled to Dortmund, fearing repercussions from the regime, and arrived on 4 September, 2015 soon after Germany announced offering temporary residency to migrants.

He is now a permanent resident and works for a charity in Berlin. Alaows is aiming to receive a German passport in the coming months, which will be required if he is to successfully stand as a candidate in September.

“In the war and during my flight, I had to see for myself what it means to be stripped of your rights,” Alaows said.

“This is why I will stand up especially for upholding human rights. Germany and North Rhine-Westphalia are my homelands. My political work on a national level began right here in my constituency, Oberhausen and Dinslaken, and so it is here that I want to take a step towards the Bundestag.”

Considering Germany’s electoral system of proportional representation it can be said that Alaows run for the seat may be achieved because he could be elected to the Bundestag as one of the Greens’ regional slate candidates.

ANTWERP, 4 February, 2021 (TON): On Thursday, an Iranian official has convicted for master planning a bomb attack against an exiled Iranian opposition group in France in 2018.

The official has been sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Belgian court that denied his claim of diplomatic immunity.

Assadollah Assadi, a Vienna-based diplomat detained in Belgium, refused to testify during his trial last year, invoking his diplomatic status. He did not attend Thursday’s hearing at the Antwerp courthouse.

It is requested by the prosecutors to grant a maximum of 20 years of a prison sentence on the charges of attempted terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist group.

The man contested all the charges against him.

Three other people also received jail sentences.

During the trial, lawyers for the plaintiffs and representatives of the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq opposition group, or MEK, claimed without offering evidence that the diplomat set up the attack on direct orders from Iran’s highest authorities. Tehran has denied having a hand in the plot.

This is a critical time for the conviction as this case certainly has the potential to embarrass the country as many state leaders may think to join hands with the country just as the U.S. administration now weighs whether to rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and the world powers.  

NEW YORK, 4 February, 2021 (TON): On Wednesday, UN court judges ruled that they can hear a case file by Iran against the U.S.

Iran brought the case against the United States seeking to have sanctions against Tehran lifted.

A majority of a panel of 16 judges found that the International Court of Justice, also known as the World Court, has jurisdiction in the dispute

After the former U.S. administration re-imposed sanctions, following the President’s decision to abandon 2015 pact involving Iran to accept curbs to its nuclear program, was brought to the court by Iran in 2018.  

The new U.S. President Biden said to reverse the pact, although Tehran and Washington have yet to agree on the steps needed for that to happen.

The U.S. tried to argue that Iran could not claim based on the 1955 bilateral friendship pact. However, judges found the treaty, signed decades before Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution and the sharp deterioration in ties with Washington could be used as a basis for the court's jurisdiction.

"The court unanimously rejects the preliminary objections to its jurisdiction raised by the United States of America according to which the subject matter of the dispute does not relate to the interpretation or application of the Treaty of Amity," presiding Judge Abdulqawi Yusuf said.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that the ruling was "another legal victory for Iran following 3 Oct '18 Order".

"Iran has always fully respected int'l law. High time for the US to live up to int'l obligations," Zarif tweeted, in a clear reference to Tehran's call on Biden administration to return to the nuclear pact and lift US sanctions.

The other U.S. objections to the case were also dismissed, which made Iran’s claims to be heard on merits. The final decision of the court would likely to take several years.  

ANKARA, 4 February, 2021 (TON): Turkey rejected the international criticism of its crackdown on the students’ protests and warned the countries to back off of its internal issues.

Weeks ago, the students and faculty members of the Bogazici University protested on Melih Bulu’s appointment as the head of the university and called for Bulu’s resignation as the university’s rector and for the university to be allowed to elect its own president.

The government’s loyalist academic, Bulu once ran for parliament as a candidate for Erdogan’s party.

Some of the protests have erupted into clashes between police and demonstrators and hundreds of people have been detained, some taken away following raids of their homes, even as Erdogan has promised reforms to strengthen democratic standards.

Turkey’s handling of the protests, as well as inappropriate remarks by Erdogan, were criticized by the officials of the United States, the United Nations, and the European Union.

On Thursday, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement defending the Turkish security forces’ actions, saying there were attempts by terrorist organizations to infiltrate and provoke the protests.
“We recommend that those who attempt to give our country lessons in democracy and law turn the mirror on themselves,” the ministry said. “No one has the right to attempt to intervene in Turkey’s affairs”.

Tensions arise when the students detained over a poster displayed at Bogazici University.
The students were arrested over the weekend on charges of inciting hatred and insulting religious values.
European Parliament legislator Nacho Sanchez Amor also expressed concerns over the police violence and mass detentions and asked, “Does this reflect the new positive agenda and the will of reforms?”

The Interior Ministry announced Thursday that police detained a total of 528 people over the protests, of which 498 have since been released. Of those in custody, at least 22 people have links to terrorist organizations, said ministry spokesman Ismail Catakli.

Turkey’s response to the international criticism reflects a strong stance and a powerful answer to the world not to question it and intervene in the country.

NETHERLANDS, 4 February, 2021 (TON): ICC (International Criminal Court) is set to deliver its verdict in the trial of Dominic Ongwen, former Uganda LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) commander.

The former commander is accused of 70 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

He has faced a series of charges, including murder, rape, torture, etc between 200 and 2004.

Ongwen went on trial in December 2016, pleaded not guilty to the charges at the start of proceedings and continues to deny all accusations.

While he was a commander, he was said to have committed the crimes

Rights groups say the LRA abducted tens of thousands of children for use as soldiers and sexual slaves, and killed and maimed thousands of civilians in remote regions of northern Uganda, north-eastern Congo, South Sudan and the Central African Republic during its three-decade insurgency, which ended in 2005.

It is likely that if the soldier is convicted he will have to face life imprisonment, although sentencing will take place at a later date.

TAIPEI, 4 February, 2021(TON): Taiwan’s foreign ministry said on Thursday, Taiwan has opened a representative office in Guyana.

Guyana, a former British colony, is strategically located next to strife-torn Venezuela, a major Chinese ally with which Guyana has a territorial dispute.

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said it had signed an agreement with Guyana on 11 January, 2021 to open a Taiwan Office, in effect a de facto embassy for the island that China claims as its sovereign territory with no right to diplomatic ties.

The office had begun the initial operations on 15 January, noting rich mining and oil resources and capital Georgetown was the seat of the secretariat for the Caribbean Community or CARICOM.

There are not good ties between China and Guyana.

Foreign Minister Hugh Todd said what is being set up is a trade and investment office in Georgetown to “create space” for the private sector in Taiwan and Guyana to do business.

“Guyana is not recognizing Taiwan as an independent state. Guyana is not establishing diplomatic relations with Taipei,” he said.

The U.S. embassy in Guyana favored the agreement.

“Closer ties with Taiwan will advance cooperation and development in Guyana on the basis of shared democratic values, transparency, and mutual respect”,” it said.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said Beijing hoped Guyana would not engage in official ties with Taiwan, calling on the country to “earnestly take steps to correct their mistake”.

It is seen that Taiwan only has formal diplomatic relations with 14 countries, including four Caribbean nations.

NEW DELHI, 4 February, 2021 (TON): On Thursday, while addressing the people in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur at the Centenary celebrations of ‘Chauri Chaura’ incident  Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized the need for integration in India to achieve the goal of Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ and make India a great power in the world.

“The power of unity that broke the chains of slavery, the same power will also make India the great power in the world. This power of unity is the basic foundation of self-reliant India,” the Prime Minister said.

To connect with the people he greeted them in the regional Bhojpuri language and said that the government's aim to make India self-reliant was for the welfare of 130-crore Indians as well as for the benefit of the world.

PM also elaborated how India dispatched necessary medicines to the people across the world and that the country also played a major role in bringing back Indians from over 50 different countries. “India also sent foreigners to their countries during the period,” the Prime Minister said further.

Mentioning the importance of Budget 2021 presented in Parliament on 1 February, 2021 the Prime Minister said there is a glimpse of the government’s effort in this Budget and it will give a “new boost” to the steps taken to deal with the challenges. 

Modi took part in the Chauri Chaura centenary celebrations which will be celebrated in all schools across the state throughout the year.

Drawing, poster, and quiz contests, as well as slogan and poetry writing, speech and essay writing competitions, will be featured in the year-long celebrations.

A postal stamp was also released by the PM dedicated to the centenary during the event.

The day “4 February” marks 100 years of the ‘Chauri Chaura’ incident, a landmark event in the country’s fight for independence.

TUNIS, 4 February, 2021 (TON): Kais Saied, President of Tunisia opposed and stood firm against the cabinet re-shuffle.

The President suggested, he will not let the 11 new ministers take the oath of office.

In January 2021, Tunisia’s parliament approved the reshuffle of the cabinet that sparked a row between the President and the Prime Minister.

"We are ready for all the solutions but I won't back down from my principles. I am ready for dialogue but I am not ready to talk with those who have robbed the Tunisian people."

President Kais condemned the absence of women among the new ministers and said some likely new Cabinet members may have conflicts of interest.

Amid the cabinet reshuffle last month, hundreds had gathered outside the parliament over social inequality and police abuses.

This comes as the ongoing unfortunate pandemic crisis is weakening an already endangered economy.

In 2020, the economy was at a low ebb and shrank by more than 8%,

The cabinet reshuffle in Tunisia can be viewed as a strategy to calm the situation amid the tensions if it happens smoothly.  

CAIRO, 4 February, 2021 (TON): Rumors about the impact of commercial routes’ construction compete with Suez Canal got rejected by the Egyptian government.

The Suez Canal Authority said the route will remain the shortest and safest way to connect the East and the West as the shipping containers can transport larger quantities of goods at a lower cost than land routes.

The authority said revenue generated during 2020 amounted to $5.61bn and 18,829 ships passed through the canal.

The Cabinet’s media center said it had contacted the Suez Canal Authority, which stressed that the foreign currency revenues of the Suez Canal have not been affected.

It confirmed that the reports are incorrect about the Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline restarting the movement of oil trade through the canal, that the impact percentage will not exceed 12-16 percent of the volume of northbound oil trade.

There is no reason to fear the competitiveness of the pipeline if it is operating the statistics of the oil trade crossing the canal showed.

It is expected that there would be an increase n the costs and time of transportation using the pipeline instead of the Suez Canal, especially since that trade is mostly directed to northwest Europe and will need to be shipped on tankers in the Mediterranean, in addition to an increase in the time used for unloading and shipping.