Month: August 2022

Opening Saudi airspace to flights to and from Israel was a focus of US President Joe Biden’s tour of the countries, which do not have formal ties, last month. Riyadh agreed in principle.

Israel said implementation could take weeks or more.

Air Seychelles said it “became the first airline to receive permission from the Saudi Arabian authorities to overfly their territory”, with Wednesday evening’s Tel Aviv to Mahe flight.

The new route “means a reduction in fuel burn between 500kg-1000kg per flight (and that) the aircraft can now carry an additional 20 passengers per flight,” it said in a statement.

“The Saudi air traffic controllers were extremely helpful and allowed us to navigate with optimal conditions for passenger comfort,” the airline quoted the flight’s captain as saying.

On Thursday, a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to Tel Aviv used Saudi airspace, according to aviation website flightradar24. There was no immediate comment from Cathay.

Saudi Arabia has allowed airlines, including Israeli carriers, to overfly its territory on flights to and from the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain after the two Gulf states establishted ties with Israel as part of a US diplomatic drive in 2020.

Prior to Biden’s visit, the only carrier allowed to use Saudi airspace for Tel Aviv services that did not originate or end in the UAE or Bahrain was Air India, based on a exemption that Riyadh granted New Delhi.

A formal opening of Saudi skies to Israel would allow Israeli carriers to cut time and costs on routes to Asia that have had to avoid Saudi Arabia’s airspace.

Biden has said the opening of Saudi airspace to all airlines flying to and from Israel could help build momentum towards Israel’s further integration with the region, including Saudi Arabia.

Flag carrier El Al Israel Airlines said it hopes for implementation of unfettered Saudi overflight rights “soon”.

An El Al flight from Tel Aviv to Bangkok on Wednesday flew over the Red Sea, avoiding Saudi Arabia, flightradar24 showed.

Israeli Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli indicated talks with Riyadh on implementation still required mediation.

“There are no diplomatic relations yet between Israel and Saudi Arabia, regrettably. Therefore this matter is not being addressed through direct contacts between the civilian authorities,” Michaeli told Tel Aviv radio station 103 FM.

“But we are working on this at full tilt.”

Thursday’s military exercises, which are set to continue on Friday, saw China fire ballistics missiles and deploy both fighter jets and warships around Taiwan.

The People’s Liberation Army declared multiple no-go danger zones around Taiwan, straddling some of the busiest shipping lanes in the world and at some points coming within 20 kilometres of the island’s shores.

Beijing called the war games a “necessary” response to a visit to the self-ruled, democratic island by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but Washington countered that China’s leaders had “chosen to overreact”.

Pelosi defended her visit on Friday, saying Washington will “not allow” China to isolate Taiwan.

“We have said from the start that our representation here is not about changing the status quo here in Asia, changing the status quo in Taiwan,” she told reporters in Tokyo on the final leg of an Asia tour.

Taiwan’s premier Su Tseng-chang, meanwhile, called for allies to push for de-escalation.

“(We) didn’t expect that the evil neighbour next door will show off its power at our door and arbitrarily jeopardise the busiest waterways in the world with its military exercises,” he told reporters.

“We also call on countries in the world that recognise peace and freedom and democracy to work together,” he added.

Missiles over Taiwan

China’s drills involved a “conventional missile firepower assault” in waters to the east of Taiwan, the Chinese military said. Beijing has said the exercises will continue until midday on Sunday.

The state-run Xinhua news agency said the Chinese army “flew more than 100 warplanes including fighters and bombers” during the exercises, as well as “over 10 destroyers and frigates”.

State broadcaster CCTV reported that Chinese missiles had flown directly over Taiwan.

Taiwan said the Chinese military fired 11 Dongfeng-class ballistic missiles “in several batches”, while Japan claimed of the nine missiles it had detected, four were “believed to have flown over Taiwan’s main island”.

Taipei’s military said it would not confirm missile flight paths in a bid to protect its intelligence capabilities and not allow China “to intimidate us”.

‘Temperature’s pretty high’

China’s ruling Communist Party views Taiwan as part of its territory and has vowed to one day take it, by force if necessary.

But the scale and intensity of the drills have triggered outrage in the United States and other democracies.

“China has chosen to overreact and use the speaker’s visit as a pretext to increase provocative military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait,” John Kirby, a White House spokesman, told reporters.

“The temperature’s pretty high,” but tensions “can come down very easily by just having the Chinese stop these very aggressive military drills,” he added.

Japan lodged a formal diplomatic complaint against Beijing, with five of the missiles believed to have landed in its exclusive economic zone.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called China’s exercises a “serious problem that impacts our national security and the safety of our citizens” and called for an “immediate cancellation of the military drills.”

But Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that the “flagrant provocation” by the United States had set an “egregious precedent.”

Trading places

The manoeuvers are taking place along some of the busiest shipping routes on the planet, used to supply vital semiconductors and electronic equipment produced in East Asian factory hubs to global markets.

Taiwan’s Maritime and Port Bureau has warned ships to avoid the areas being used for the Chinese drills.

“The shutting down of these transport routes — even temporarily — has consequences not only for Taiwan, but also trade flows tied to Japan and South Korea,” Nick Marro, the Economist Intelligence Unit’s lead analyst for global trade, wrote in a note.

Taiwan said the drills would disrupt 18 international routes passing through its flight information region while several international airlines told AFP they would divert flights.

But markets in Taipei appeared to shrug off the tensions, with the Taiwan Taiex Shipping and Transportation Index, which tracks major shipping and airline stocks, up 2.3 per cent early on Friday.

And analysts broadly agree that despite all its aggressive posturing, Beijing does not want an active military conflict against the United States and its allies over Taiwan — just yet.

“The last thing Xi wants is an accidental war ignited,” Titus Chen, an associate professor of political science at the National Sun Yat-Sen University in Taiwan, told AFP.

ISLAMABAD: During a meeting with the leadership of the ruling coalition, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif on Wednesday directed political parties to file a Supreme Court reference against PTI within 48 hours.

According to sources, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif who presided the meeting in which the PML-N supremo urged that the SC be requested to have a full court hear the reference.

Nawaz added that those who create instability following the agenda of anti-national elements should receive no concession. He alleged that PTI chief Imran Khan is directly involved in CPEC’s rollback and selling Kashmir.

 

 

He asked coalition partners to take action against Khan’s PTI following Election Commission of Pakistan’s verdict in the foreign funding case, in which it declared the party to have received prohibited funds of foreign origin. The written verdict also stated that the PTI getting funds from some of the sources is also a violation of Pakistan’s law.

Also present during the meeting, Qaumi Watan Party Chief Aftab Khan Sherpao said that the coalition government must now perform and control the increasing inflation.

Coalition parties decided to hold take to the streets against PTI across Pakistan. MQM will organise demonstrations in Karachi, while Hyderabad and Sukkur will be taken care of by the PPP.

During the meeting, it was also decided that PML-N will hold rallies against Khan’s party in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Islamabad. While those in Peshawar will be held by JUI and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), and BNP Mengal will organise rallies in Quetta.

BAKU: New tensions erupted over Nagorno-Karabakh on Wednesday as three soldiers were killed and Azerbaijan said it had taken control of several strategic heights in the disputed region.

The escalation drew immediate international reaction, with Russia accusing Baku of violating the brittle ceasefire and the European Union urging an “immediate cessation of hostilities”.

Arch enemies Armenia and Azerbaijan fought two wars — in 2020 and in the 1990s  — over Azerbaijan’s Armenian-populated region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia ceded swathes of territory it had controlled for decades, and Russia deployed some 2,000 peacekeepers to oversee the fragile truce, but tensions persist despite a ceasefire agreement.

On Wednesday, new tensions erupted as Azerbaijan said it had lost a soldier and the Karabakh army said two of its troops had been killed and more than a dozen injured.

 

 

The Azerbaijani defence ministry said Karabakh troops targeted its army positions in the district of Lachin, which is under the supervision of the Russian peacekeeping force, killing an Azerbaijani conscript.

The Azerbaijani army later said it conducted an operation dubbed “Revenge” in response and took control of several strategic heights in Karabakh.

The army of the breakaway statelet for its part accused Azerbaijan of violating a ceasefire and killing two soldiers and wounding another 14.

Karabakh declared a “partial mobilisation”, the army said in a statement.

Armenia called on the international community to help stop Azerbaijan’s “aggressive actions” after the flare-up.

“Azerbaijan continues its policy of terror against the population of Nagorno-Karabakh,” the foreign ministry said.

Armenia accused Azerbaijan of seeking to make unilateral changes over the Lachin corridor that links Armenia and Karabakh.

Russia accused Azerbaijan of breaking the ceasefire and vowed to stabilise the situation.

“The ceasefire regime was violated by the armed forces of Azerbaijan around the Saribaba height,” the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.

“The command of the Russian peacekeeping force, with representatives of Azerbaijan and Armenia, are taking measures to stabilise the situation.”

‘Essential to de-escalate’

The escalation came after Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Tuesday.

The European Union called for an “immediate cessation of hostilities” between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces in Karabakh.

“It is essential to de-escalate, fully respect the ceasefire and return to the negotiating table to seek negotiated solutions,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell’s spokesman said in a statement.

“The European Union remains committed to help overcome tensions and continue its engagement towards sustainable peace and stability in the South Caucasus,” Borrell’s spokesman added.

Following Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine on February 24, an increasingly isolated Moscow lost its status as the primary mediator in the Karabakh conflict.

Six weeks of fighting in the autumn of 2020 claimed more than 6,500 lives and ended with a Russian-brokered ceasefire agreement.

In July, Azerbaijan began the process of returning its people to land recaptured from Armenian separatists in what Baku calls “The Great Return”.

The oil-rich country has vowed to repopulate lands recaptured in the six-week war with Armenia.

President Ilham Aliyev had for years promised to retake lands lost in the 1990s and the first returns marked a symbolic moment for Azerbaijan.

The United States killed Zawahiri with a missile fired from a drone while he stood on a balcony at his Kabul hideout on Sunday, US officials said, the biggest blow to the Taliban since Osama bin Laden was shot dead more than a decade ago in Pakistan.

The Taliban have not confirmed Zawahiri’s death.

Officials of the group, long-time allies of Al Qaeda, initially confirmed the Sunday drone strike, but said the house that was hit was empty.

“There are meetings at a very high level on whether they should react to the drone strike, and in case they decide to, then what is the proper way,” a Taliban leader who holds an important position in Kabul said.

The official, who said there had been lengthy leadership discussions for two days, declined to be identified. He did not confirm that Zawahiri was in the house that the missile struck.

How the Taliban react could have significant repercussions as the group seeks international legitimacy, and access to billions of dollars in frozen funds, following their defeat of a US-backed government a year ago.

Zawahiri, an Egyptian doctor, was closely involved in the Sept 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and was one of the world’s most wanted men.

His death in Kabul raises questions about whether he received sanctuary from the Taliban, who had assured the United States as part of a 2020 agreement on the withdrawal of US-led forces that they would not harbour other militant groups.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Taliban had “grossly violated” the agreement by hosting and sheltering Zawahiri.

Outside a tight circle of top Taliban leaders, group members appeared in the dark about whether Zawahiri was actually in Kabul, let alone his fate.

Another Taliban official confirmed the high-level meetings, but said he did not know what was being discussed and he did not believe Zawahiri was in the house.

Suhail Shaheen, the designated Taliban representative to the United Nations, who is based in Doha, told journalists that he had received no word on the Taliban position.

“I am awaiting details and reaction from Kabul,” he told reporters in a message.

Kansans rejected an amendment that would have scrapped language in the state constitution guaranteeing the right to the procedure and could have paved the way for stricter regulations or a ban.

The vote was widely seen as a test case for abortion rights nationwide, as Republican-dominated legislatures rush to impose strict bans on the procedure following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

Pro-abortion rights campaigners and supporters celebrated the win for their side of the hotly contested US debate. “I’m just beside myself,” campaign volunteer Anne Melia said.

When polls closed at 7pm, Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab said turnout was as high as 50 percent on this referendum, local media reported, a number usually expected for a general election.

Poll worker Marsha Barrett said some 250 voters had come to a station in the Kansas City suburb of Olathe by noon — the same number it might see all day in a presidential election. “This election is crazy,” Barrett said. “People are determined to vote.” President Joe Biden also hailed the result. “Tonight, Kansans used their voices to protect women’s right to choose and access reproductive health care,” he said on Twitter.

“It’s an important victory for Kansas, but also for every American who believes that women should be able to make their own health decisions without government interference.” In a separate statement, he urged Congress to “listen to the will of the American people” and pass a bill codifying the right to abortion.

Other states including California and Kentucky are set to vote on the hot-button issue in November, at the same time as Congressional midterm elections in which both Republicans and Democrats hope to use it to mobilize their supporters nationwide.

‘Remarkable’ result

In Kansas, the ballot centered on a 2019 ruling by the state’s supreme court that guarantees access to abortion.

In response, the Republican-dominated state legislature introduced an amendment known as “Value Them Both” that would have scrapped the constitutional right — with the stated aim of handing regulation of the procedure back to lawmakers.

In the opposing camp, activists said the campaign was a barely masked bid to clear the way for an outright ban — one state legislator had already introduced a bill that would ban abortion without exceptions for rape, incest or the mother’s life.

For Ashley All, spokeswoman for pro-abortion rights campaign Kansans for Constitutional Freedom, the result of Tuesday’s referendum was “remarkable.” “Kansans understood that this amendment would mandate government control over private medical decisions,” she said.

But voter Sylvia Brantley, 60, said earlier in the day she voted in favor of the change because she believes “babies matter, too.” She said she wanted to see more regulations, in the

hope that “Kansas will not be a marketplace for killing babies.”

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said Tehran was ready to reach a deal that guarantees its rights, according to state media.

“(Iranian negotiator) Bagheri Kani will leave Tehran in a few hours … In this round of talks, which will be held as usual with the coordination of the European Union, ideas presented by different sides will be discussed,” Kanaani said.

A US official said Rob Malley, the US special envoy for Iran, will travel to Vienna for talks this week on reviving the nuclear agreement.

Last month, top European Union diplomat Josep Borrell said he had proposed a new draft text to revive the accord under which Iran curbed its nuclear programme in return for relief from economic sanctions.

In 2018, then-US President Donald Trump abandoned the deal, calling it too soft on Iran, and re-imposed harsh US sanctions, spurring Tehran to begin breaching the nuclear limits set in the pact.

Rob Malley
The deal seemed near revival in March after 11 months of indirect talks between Tehran and President Joe Biden’s administration in Vienna.

But talks then broke down over obstacles including Tehran’s demand that Washington should give guarantees that no US president would abandon the deal as Trump did.

In June, the EU-mediated, indirect talks between Bagheri Kani and Malley aimed at breaking an impasse over how to salvage the 2015 nuclear pact ended in Qatar without the progress.

“Iran is determined to reach a stable agreement that guarantees the rights and interests of the Iranian nation,” Kanaani said, calling on Washington to “provide the conditions for the effective progress of the talks by taking the necessary decisions”.

An Iranian official said that the talks in Vienna will be “in the format of the Doha meeting”, where EU envoy Enrique Mora shuttled between Bagheri Kani and Malley because Tehran refused to hold direct talks with Washington.

Earlier on Wednesday, Mora tweeted: “On my way to Vienna to discuss #JCPOA back to full implementation on the basis of the coordinator’s text tabled on 20 July.”

President Alvi expressed sorrow over the loss of lives in the UAE, five Pakistanis among them, and prayed that the affected families bear their losses with fortitude.

He also prayed for the speedy recovery of the injured. The President said Pakistan itself was going through a similar situation in the wake of monsoon rains.

Dr Arif Alvi called upon the international community to work closely with developing countries in order to offset the impact of climate change.

On his Twitter handle, the prime minister offered condolences to the bereaved families.

Shehbaz Sharif, in a related tweet, said Pakistan stood by the people of the UAE and the government in this difficult hour.

He asked the Pakistan embassy in Abu Dhabi to extend full support to the affected families.

 

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said the government and people of Pakistan extend heartfelt condolences to the government and people of the UAE on the devastation caused by floods.

“We express our deepest sympathies to the families of the deceased and pray for speedy recovery of those injured. Pakistan stands in solidarity with the people and government of the United Arab Emirates,” the spokesman said. The Pakistan embassy in Abu Dhabi and the consulate general in Dubai were in touch with the UAE government and families of the affected Pakistanis, the spokesman added.

The UAE recorded its highest amount of rainfall in 27 years last week. The rains led to floods in Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah and Fujairah.

The Sierra Leone-flagged ship Razoni will set off from Odesa port for Lebanon with its cargo of corn, the ministry said.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24 has sparked a worldwide food and energy crisis that is shaking the global economy. The United Nations has warned of a global hunger crisis with a “real risk” of multiple famines this year.

Russia and Ukraine account for nearly a third of global wheat exports. But Western sanctions on Russia and fighting along Ukraine’s eastern seaboard have prevented grain ships safely leaving ports.

The Razoni’s departure was made possible after Moscow, Kyiv, Ankara and the United Nations signed a grain-and-fertiliser export agreement in July. The deal aims to allow safe passage for grain shipments in and out of Chornomorsk, Odesa and the port of Pivdennyi.

“It was agreed for the Sierra Leone-flagged cargo ship named Razoni, which is loaded with corn, to depart from the Odesa port at 08:30 in the morning (05:30 GMT) on Aug 1 to go to Lebanon,” Turkey’s defence ministry said in a note.

“Deployment of other ships are planned within the scope of the determined corridor and method” as part of the July agreement, it said.

Ukrainian officials have said there were 17 ships docked in Ukraine’s Black Sea ports with almost 600,000 tonnes of cargo. Of them, 16 held Ukrainian grain with a total volume of about 580,000 tonnes.

Russia has denied responsibility for the food crisis, blaming Western sanctions for slowing exports and Ukraine for mining the approaches to its ports.

Bombardment of ports

On Sunday, Russian missiles pounded Ukraine’s port city Mykolaiv on the Black Sea as President Vladimir Putin signed a new naval doctrine casting the United States as Russia’s main rival and setting maritime ambitions in the Black Sea and Arctic.

Putin did not mention the conflict in Ukraine during a Navy Day speech but said the navy would receive hypersonic Zircon cruise missiles in coming months. The missiles can travel at nine times the speed of sound, outrunning air defences.

Navy Day celebrations in the port of Sevastopol were disrupted when five Russian navy staff members were injured by an explosion after a suspected drone flew into the courtyard of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, the Crimean port city’s governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, told Russian media.

Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports.

Mykolaiv Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said more than 12 missile strikes on Sunday, probably the most powerful on the city in five months of war, hit homes and schools, with two people confirmed killed and three wounded. Missile strikes continued into Sunday evening.

Ukrainian grain tycoon Oleksiy Vadatursky, founder and owner of agriculture company Nibulon, and his wife were killed in their home, Mykolaiv Governor Vitaliy Kim said on Telegram.

Headquartered in Mykolaiv, a strategically important city that borders the mostly Russian-occupied Kherson region, Nibulon specialises in the production and export of wheat, barley and corn, and has its own fleet and shipyard.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described Vadatursky’s death as “a great loss for all of Ukraine”.

Zelenskiy added that the businessman — one of Ukraine’s richest with Forbes estimating his 2021 net worth at $430 million — had been building a modern grain market with a network of terminals and elevators.

“It is these people, these companies, precisely the south of Ukraine, which has guaranteed the world’s food security,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly address. “This was always so. And it will be so once again.”

Zelenskiy said Ukraine may harvest only half its usual amount this year due to disruption to farming from the biggest conflict in Europe since World War Two. Farmers have reported trying to harvest in between Russian shelling of their fields.

Eastern danger

After failing to quickly capture the capital, Kyiv, early in the war, Russia has turned its focus towards Ukraine’s east and south.

Zelenskiy said Russia had been transferring some forces from the eastern Donbas region to the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.

“As briefed by the Ukrainian authorities last week, Russia is likely reallocating a significant number of its forces from the northern Donbas sector to southern Ukraine,” the British Ministry of Defence said in an intelligence update.

It said Russia was probably adjusting the operational design of its Donbas offensive and had likely identified its Zaporizhzhia front as vulnerable and in need of reinforcement.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and Ukraine says Russia is seeking to do the same with the Donbas region and link it to Crimea. Russian-backed separatist controlled parts of the region before the invasion.