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Newspaper Analysis in Sync with BCS Written Syllabus! 6th August, 2021 International –page 6 Myanmar envoy alerts UN to alleged village on July 28. In the letter, the ambassador repeated his call for a global arms embargo on the ruling junta and ‘massacre’ “urgent humanitarian intervention” from the international community. “We cannot let the military keep on doing this Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations, who has kind of atrocity in Myanmar,” Kyaw Moe Tun told AFP. refused to leave his post despite being fired after the Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army ousted the February coup, has alerted the world body to a “reported civilian leadership on February 1, launching a crackdown massacre” by the military junta. Kyaw Moe Tun sent a on dissent that has killed more than 900 people, according letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on to a local monitoring group. Kyaw Moe Tun has brushed Tuesday saying 40 bodies had been found in Kani aside the junta’s claims that he no longer represents township in July in the Sagaing area of northwestern Myanmar. The United Nations still considers him as the Myanmar. rightful envoy. Myanmar’s junta chief said on Sunday The junta has denied the massacre, while AFP has not been elections would be held and a state of emergency lifted by able to independently verify the reports due to mobile August 2023, extending the military’s initial one-year networks being cut in the remote region. The timeline announced days after the coup. representative wrote that soldiers tortured and killed 16 FILE PHOTO: Myanmar's Ambassador to the United men in a village in the township around July 9 and 10, Nations Kyaw Moe Tun after which 10,000 residents fled the area. He said a further 13 bodies were discovered in the days following clashes between local fighters and security forces on July 26. Kyaw Moe Tun added that another 11 men, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed and set on fire in a separate International –page 6

Pressure, sanctions won’t work on Iran “Sanctions against the nation of Iran must be lifted. We will support any diplomatic plans that will realise this goal,” he said as he was sworn in Warns new President Raisi, says he’ll back any diplomatic during a televised ceremony. moves to lift sanctions But “the policy of pressure and sanctions will not cause the nation of Iran to back down from following up on its legal rights,” he said, while reiterating Tehran’s official position of pursuing solely “peaceful” nuclear technology. The former judiciary chief officially began his four-year mandate on Tuesday when he was inaugurated by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Yesterday, he was sworn in before Iran’s parliament, to which he will present his cabinet list early next week, state television reported. Six rounds of nuclear talks between Iran and world powers were held in Vienna between April and June in an attempt to revive the accord. The Iran’s new President Ebrahim Raisi kisses the during his last round concluded on June 20, with no date set for another. swearing-in ceremony at the parliament in Tehran, yesterday. Raisi also emphasised that one of his administration’s main foreign Iran’s new President Ebrahim Raisi yesterday said he will support “any policy priorities will be improving relations with regional countries. diplomatic plans” to lift US sanctions but that foreign pressure will not make Tehran back down from its “rights”. “I extend the hand of friendship and brotherhood to all countries in the region, especially our neighbours,” he said. Ultraconservative Raisi takes over from moderate Hassan Rouhani, whose landmark achievement during his two-term presidency was the 2015 nuclear agreement between the Islamic republic and six world powers. Major Issues and Conflicts in the World: nuclear issue and Iran, Iran has been grappling with a deep economic and social crisis following former US president Donald Trump’s decision to unilaterally withdraw Washington from the nuclear deal in 2018 and impose crushing sanctions. Opinion Page-9

Resurgence of in Afghanistan and its effect on The last batch of US-led NATO troops left Afghanistan’s Bagram Airfield in early July of this year. They have been attacking Al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan from this airfield for the last 20 years. A few days ago, US President Joe Biden had a meeting with the visiting Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. What Biden said after the meeting was that Afghanistan will have to decide what happens next. Support would continue though, he added.

That means, after a long period of geopolitical use, the US INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (COMPULSORY) administration no longer wants to take any responsibility for the ongoing situation in Afghanistan, which has been in the Politics in South Asia: throes of a bloody conflict for nearly 20 years. Actors in the World: Modern state, types of state, sovereignty, non-state actors, international institutions, relations between state and non-state actors. Opinion Page-9-Resurgence of Taliban in Afghanistan and its effect on Bangladesh democratising Afghanistan and fighting a At a time when Biden is preaching, NATO war on terror. The consequences of any Most former and current US troops are leaving and on the other side, military alliance led by them have always policymakers like him hide the fact that the Taliban are on a mission to occupy been the same. They have done the the militants have emerged in areas Afghanistan. The Taliban have expanded same thing in Vietnam and Iraq. While around the world where they have their dominance in rural areas of the war in Vietnam had created new created chaos and unrest. It can be seen western Afghanistan. Now they are areas of conflict during the Cold War, the that the rise and actions of these moving towards the major cities. They experience of Iraq is even grimmer. militants have always favoured their are occupying the districts. There have Today, everyone knows that the reasons geopolitical interests at the end. even been reports that 260 Afghan for the Anglo-American alliance’s soldiers have fled to Tajikistan in the face invasion of Iraq were baseless. But that The strengthening of the Taliban in of Taliban attacks. A few days ago, the invasion paved the way for terrorism Afghanistan did not stop its influence in Taliban launched an attack on the around the world to increase and that country alone. Pakistan, Bangladesh regional capital. After the Qala-e-Naw created new extremist forces like the IS, and even India were influenced by the attack in western Afghanistan, there not only in Iraq, but all over the world. rise of such forces. The Taliban had have been reports of clashes between established contacts with extremists in The US supported the Taliban—or the Taliban and Afghan forces. With Bangladesh and they also developed Mujahideen—in the early 1990s to fight everything that is happening, everyone close ties with radical political parties. against the Soviet Union. It was after is concerned about Afghanistan. We heard them chant slogans in their 9/11 that the US started its anti-Taliban processions in the nineties that Bangla America retreating like this is not new. activities. Today, John Bolton, a former shall be Afghan and they will all be the They have provoked regional instability US security adviser, says that Pakistan is Taliban! by creating complexities in the name of responsible for the rise of the Taliban! We have seen how Bangladeshis have travelled to Is this a danger only for our country? India, one of the Afghanistan and fought for the Taliban. After returning to largest countries in Asia, cannot avoid such influences Bangladesh, they have not only created militant organisations either. According to media reports, JMB’s Salahuddin has like Harkatul Jihad or HUJI, they have tried to destroy the reportedly worked with militant groups inside India. progressive politics of the country as well. They have strategically expanded their organisation by choosing their Hefazat’s vandalism in March 2021 was also focused on the political allies, and to do so, they have received money from Indian prime minister’s visit to Bangladesh. It cannot be ruled the Taliban. The impact of the rise of the Taliban in the out that the rise of the Afghan Taliban will create a new country was even clearer when one read the statement crisis in Kashmir. There is nothing new to say about the made before the execution of JMB leader Shaykh Abdur Taliban’s position inside Pakistan. As a result, just as a Rahman. Shaykh Abdur Rahman made contact with Afghani bloody Iraq affected the stability of the entire Middle East, a and Pakistani militants before entering the JMB with the conflict-ridden Afghanistan could in fact destabilise the help of . He also had a meeting with HUJI on that whole of South Asia. basis. The unity of progressive politics in the country did not So, we all need to focus on the future crisis brewing in allow them to succeed in the end. Afghanistan now. It is not a headache of any single state. If But they are yet to be fully stopped According to media the South Asian countries cannot work together on this issue reports, intelligence officials have found the involvement of with a common goal of achieving regional stability, then Afghan militants in the violence of Hefazat-e-Islam in the everyone will have to pay the price for it in the future. country a few days ago. They are working on different The strengthening of the Taliban in Afghanistan did not stop strategies together. While staying in India, Salahuddin alias its influence in that country alone. Pakistan, Bangladesh and Salehin, the current Amir of JMB, has been organising even India were influenced by the rise of such forces. militants in the country. A militant arrested in Dhaka a few INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (COMPULSORY) months ago has confessed that he went to India and met Politics in South Asia: him. It is not difficult to see from past experiences that the Actors in the World: Modern state, types of state, return of the Taliban to full power in Afghanistan will again sovereignty, non-state actors, international institutions, fuel this radical group in Bangladesh. relations between state and non-state actors. Opinion Page-9--- 5th August,2021 Afghanistan may be a bellwether for Afghanistan. Saudi-Iranian rivalry Outgoing Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif outlined the potential tripwire Afghanistan constitutes for Boasting an almost 1,000-kilometre border with Iran and a Iran. history of troubled relations between the Iranians and Sunni Muslim militants, including the Taliban, Afghanistan could become a bellwether for the future of the rivalry between the Islamic Republic and . Had the United States withdrawn from Afghanistan several years earlier, chances would have been that Saudi Arabia would have sought to exploit military advances by the Taliban in far less subtle ways than it may do now. Saudi Arabia was still channelling funds in 2017 to anti- Iranian, anti-Shiite militants in the Iranian-Afghan-Pakistani border triangle and further south on the Pakistani side of the frontier, despite Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s efforts to distance the kingdom from identification with austere interpretations of Islam that shaped the country’s history and that it shared with the Taliban. “The Taliban is a religious extremist group which is no INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (COMPULSORY) stranger to extremism and murder, especially murdering Politics in South Asia: Shias, and its hands are stained with the blood of our Actors in the World: Modern state, types of state, diplomats,” noted an Iranian cleric, referring to the 1998 sovereignty, non-state actors, international institutions, killing of eight Iranian diplomats and a journalist in relations between state and non-state actors. Opinion Page-9--- 5th August,2021-Afghanistan may be a bellwether for Saudi-Iranian rivalry “If Iran doesn’t play well and makes an enemy out of The Taliban have sought in recent weeks to assure the Taliban soon, I think some Arab countries in the Afghanistan’s neighbours that they seek cooperation Persian Gulf and the US would attempt to finance and would not be supporting militancy beyond their and direct the Taliban to weaken Tehran and divert country’s borders. Iran last month hosted talks its attention away from Iraq and other Arab between the Taliban and the Afghan government countries. The biggest threat for us would be the that ended with a joint statement calling for a formation of an anti-Iran political system in peaceful political settlement, and declaring that “war Afghanistan,” Zarif said. is not the solution.” Comparing the potential problems for Iran with an It has been war ever since. Afghanistan controlled by the Taliban, or a From the Saudi perspective, it would not be the first neighbouring country at war with itself to Saudi time that the Taliban have said one thing and done Arabia’s Houthi troubles in Yemen, is tempting. Saudi another, including keeping an alleged promise prior Arabia was, before the 2001 US invasion of to 9/11 that Osama Bin Laden would not be allowed Afghanistan, one of only three countries to recognise to plan and organise attacks from Afghan soil and the Taliban’s control of the country. At the time, it subsequent refusal to hand over the Saudi national. saw virtue in stirring the pot on Iran’s borders. Much has changed not only in the last two decades, INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (COMPULSORY) but also in the last few years since both Saudi Arabia Politics in South Asia: and some Trump administration officials—like national Actors in the World: Modern state, types of state, security advisor John Bolton—were toying with the sovereignty, non-state actors, international idea of attempting to spark ethnic insurgencies inside institutions, relations between state and non-state Iran. And neither is Afghanistan Yemen, nor is the actors. Taliban the Houthis. Opinion Page-9--- 5th August,2021--Afghanistan may be a bellwether for Saudi-Iranian rivalry All of this is not to say that Afghanistan could not with the violation of women’s rights, could prove emerge as a venue for Middle Eastern rivalries tricky for Prince Mohammed as he seeks to convince involving not only Saudi Arabia and Iran, but the international community that the kingdom has potentially also Turkey and Qatar. It probably will, broken with an ultra-conservative strand of Islam albeit one in which battles are likely to be fought less that inspired groups like the Afghan militants. through proxies and more economically and It would also complicate the crown prince’s efforts to culturally, and in which alliances will look project his country as a beacon of a moderate and significantly different than in the past. tolerant form of the faith, and complicate relations A crucial factor in how the rivalries play out will be with the United States. the Taliban’s attitude towards non-Pashtun ethnic Moreover, Prince Mohammed’s religious soft power and religious groups. strategy may be working. In a sign of changing times, “If Afghanistan returns to the situation before Western non-governmental organisations like September 11, 2001, when the Taliban were at war Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Foundation look to with the Shia Hazara and the Turkic Uzbeks, then Saudi Arabia as a model for the Taliban. Iran and Turkey will almost inevitably be drawn in on the other side—especially if Saudi Arabia INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (COMPULSORY) resumes support for the Taliban as a way of Politics in South Asia: attacking Iran… Ideally, a regional consensus could Actors in the World: Modern state, types of state, successfully pressure the Taliban to respect the sovereignty, non-state actors, international autonomy of minority areas,” said Eurasia scholar institutions, relations between state and non-state Anatol Lieven. actors. Supporting the Taliban, a group that is identified Opinion Page-9--- 5th August,2021--Afghanistan may be a bellwether for Saudi-Iranian rivalry

“The way Saudi Arabia has developed in the past 10, 20 years is have much more to gain from the Taliban. Hazaras are a weak player remarkable. I have seen with my own eyes how much [they] have to choose in this war. Iran is a country before it is a religious reconciled modern life, women’s rights, women education, work-life, institution. They will first choose things that benefit their country and still guarding [their] Islamic values. This could be a certain role before they look at what benefits the Shia.” model for the Taliban,” said Ellinor Zeino, the Foundation’s Afghanistan country director, in a webinar hosted by the King Faisal Dr. James M. Dorsey is an award-winning journalist and a senior fellow Center for Research and Islamic Studies (KFCRI). at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and the National University of Saudi steps so far to moderate the Taliban and facilitate a peaceful Singapore’s Middle East Institute. resolution of the Afghanistan conflict are however unlikely to have ingratiated the kingdom with the Taliban. A Saudi-hosted Islamic Conference on the Declaration of Peace in Afghanistan in the holy city of Mecca in June, attended by Afghan and Pakistani Islamic scholars and government officials, condemned the recent violence as having “no justification” and asserting that “it could not be called jihad.” Fuelling the fire, Yusuf Bin Ahmed Al Uthaymeen, the secretary- general of the 57-nation, Saudi-dominated Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), told the conference that the Taliban-led violence amounted to “genocide against Muslims.” The rhetoric notwithstanding, conservative Iran’s inclination to accommodate the Taliban as President-elect Ebrahim Raisi takes office, in a twist of irony, could see the Islamic republic and the kingdom both backing a group with a history of fire-breathing anti-Shiism, if it comes to power in Kabul. Mehdi Jafari, an Afghan Shiite refugee in Belgium, said, “[The Iranians] Last Page- page 16 Kennedy, who was also the chairman of the senate judiciary subcommittee on refugees, 500 Indian MPs urge Thant to save said it made no sense to provide the West Bangabandhu’s life Pakistan government with military supplies About 500 Indian MPs from all parties, except which helped create refugees, while spending the Muslim League, addressed a memorandum millions of dollars to aid those refugees. to UN Secretary General U Thant urging him to Senator Kennedy made the criticism in save the life of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur response to President Richard Nixon’s Rahman. The document warned that “if any statement on August 5 opposing a House of attempt is made to try the great leader Representatives measure that recommended [Bangabandhu] by the military government of cutting off economic and military aid to the Pakistan, waves of terrible reaction will sweep Pakistan government until the situation Bangladesh and the Government of Pakistan returned to normal in East Pakistan. will be held responsible for the consequences.” The copies of the memorandum would also be BANGLADESH AFFAIRS SYLLABUS PART- sent to heads of all governments and various Topic Serial-16. The Liberation War and its diplomatic missions in New Delhi, said a Background:Role of Major Powers and of the spokesman. UN…. NIXON’S POLICY SENSELESS: KENNEDY US Senator Edward Kennedy charged the Nixon administration with following a senseless policy towards the East Pakistan refugee problem. Thank you !!