Palestinian factions to meet in Cairo for reconciliation push

The talks come as Palestinians face rising tensions with the United States over the threatened closure of their office in Washington

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and former Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Cairo in December 2011 (AFP)

Sunday 19 November 2017

Leading Palestinian political factions are to gather on Tuesday in Cairo to push ahead with reconciliation efforts, despite fundamental disputes ahead of a key 1 December deadline.

The talks come as Palestinians face rising tensions with the United States over the threatened closure of their office in Washington, but this is seen as unlikely to affect the outcome.

Tensions between the two largest Palestinian groups - Fatah and Hamas - have reemerged since they signed a reconciliation deal last month, but delegates hope the meeting of 13 factions could push the bid ahead.

The fate of Hamas's vast armed wing, however, remains unclear.

Fatah, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, has been at loggerheads with Hamas since the latter movement seized control of Gaza in 2007.

But on 12 October, the two parties signed an Egyptian-brokered deal which is meant to see Hamas hand back civilian power to Abbas's internationally recognised Palestinian Authority (PA) government, which is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, by 1 December. 

In a crucial first step, Hamas stuck to a 1 November deadline to hand over the border crossings between Gaza and its neighbours Egypt and Israel.

However, since that date, progress has appeared to stall, with Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah suggesting the PA needed full security control of Gaza before further steps could be taken.

Hamas rejected that, accusing Hamdallah of seeking to change the terms of the agreement.

The Fatah-dominated Palestinian government has also refused to remove crippling measures targeting Gaza, including reduced electricity supplies.

Humanitarian concerns

Palestinians and international powers hope an implemented reconciliation deal could help ease the suffering of Gaza's two million residents, who suffer from high rates of poverty and unemployment.

Multiple previous reconciliation attempts have failed.

The Cairo talks come amid a rise in US-Palestinian tensions over a threatened closure of the office in Washington of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which the international community recognises as representing all Palestinians.

The threatened closure was apparently over a Palestinian suggestion of taking the issue of Israeli settlements on occupied land to the International Criminal Court.

But an analyst said these tensions were not likely to influence discussions in Cairo.

"I don't think the tensions between the PA and Washington will affect the reconciliation process," Palestinian political analyst George Giacaman said.

"The problems that the PA is facing regarding Gaza are of a different nature: how will they cope with the financial and humanitarian situation in Gaza, how will they control the groups that Hamas struggled to control until now?"

Tuesday's meeting brings together 13 factions, and analysts expect them all to back reconciliation.

Wasel Abu Yousef, a senior PLO official, said the talks could last until Thursday, with all factions expected to be in attendance.

"I think this meeting will be a huge step towards the removal of all the obstacles to reconciliation, which is supported by everyone," he told AFP.

The topics to be discussed are well known - societal reconciliation, security, forming a potential unity government, elections, and whether Hamas could eventually join the PLO.

But the extent to which each of them will be discussed matters.

Giving up weapons?

The most controversial issue remains security -- meaning the future of Hamas's vast military wing.

Bassem Naim, a top Hamas official, said it was impossible for them to consider giving up their weapons.

He argued that in the West Bank where Abbas's government is meant to have partial self rule, the Israeli army in reality operates with impunity - including in areas nominally under full Palestinian control.

"I think no Palestinian here can accept this model as a model for the security we are looking for," he told AFP in Gaza.

Likewise, he said the party would not be willing to consider recognising Israel at this time.

For the Israelis and the Americans, however, such a situation would be unacceptable.

Both have said they would reject any government including Hamas unless the Islamists gave up their weapons.

The agreement signed in Cairo last month is ambiguous about the future of Hamas's arms.

For this reason, Naim thinks the Egyptians will skirt around security in this meeting and focus on "how to achieve practical steps in the reconciliation process, mainly in the civil sector, government, ministers".

Among the other topics that could be discussed is the formation of a new unity government and even elections.

There have been no Palestinian parliamentary elections since 2006, when Hamas surprised Fatah.

The international community refused to accept the Hamas victory, leading to vicious disputes and the movement's eventual seizure of Gaza.

Hamas is considered a terrorist group by Israel and the United States.

Clinton Treasury secretary: GOP tax bill a ‘serious policy error’

BY JOSH DELK - 11/17/17 11:24 AM EST

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers railed against Republicans' tax reform plan on Friday, calling it "madness" and a "serious policy error."

Summers, who served as head of the Treasury Department under former President Clinton, criticized the plan for repealing ObamaCare’s individual insurance mandate, and for claiming that tax cuts would lead to an average pay raise of between $4,000 and $9,000 for the average American household.

"It is madness to spend $300 billion taking health insurance away from more than 10 million Americans in order to finance tax cuts for the top 1 percent of Americans," Summers said in an interview on CNN's "New Day." "What values are served by doing that?"

"I think this plan will bloat our deficit, favor the most affluent and mortgage our future. It's a serious policy error," he continued. "Yes there may be some stimulus to investment, and yes that may have some impact on wages, but no serious expert who looks at the actual plans under discussion has or will support the $4,000 to $9,000 claim."

The House on Thursday passed legislation to overhaul the tax code, moving Republicans one step closer to achieving the top item on their legislative agenda.

The measure was approved by a vote of 227-205. No Democrats voted for the bill, while 13 Republicans broke ranks to oppose it.  

GOP leaders are hoping to get legislation to President Trump’s desk by Christmas, an ambitious timeline given the obstacles that are mounting in the Senate.

In towns and cities nationwide, fears of trickle-down effects of federal tax legislation

The Trump administration says its tax plan will help ordinary Americans, but some GOP figures have acknowledged big business and political donors will benefit. (Taylor Turner/The Washington Post)

By Renae Merle and Peter Jamison November 17 at 6:56 PM

It took the city of Pataskala, Ohio, nine ballot measures before its 15,000 residents agreed to a new 1 percent tax to pay for repairs to its crumbling roads and to buy new police cruisers. The mostly rural community was finally won over by a century-old hallmark of the tax code: The $5 million local levy could be deducted from their federal taxes.

“There is a severe sensitivity to more taxes here,” said James M. Nicholson, the city’s finance director. “At the end of the day, you get a tax break was the thing that convinced people.”

But now, in small towns and thriving cities, in Republican- and Democratic-leaning states, local leaders are warning that the $1.5 trillion tax legislation moving through Congress threatens to undermine their ability to raise money for government services, including police and schools. The Republican measures would eliminate or severely curtail taxpayers’ ability to lower their federal tax bill by deducting the cost of their state and local taxes. Without that offset, local leaders say, taxpayers will begin to seek relief closer to home, potentially making it more difficult to provide basic services.

The House passed a bill Thursday that would severely curtail the tax deduction, allowing people to deduct only up to $10,000 in property taxes from their federal returns, while the Senate is moving a bill forward that would eliminate it.

“I am hearing from our members across the country,” said Irma Esparza Diggs, director of federal advocacy for the National League of Cities. “It’s not just an inside-the-Beltway conversation.”

In Pataskala, Nicholson worries that weary residents might balk at future tax increases to pay for a backlog of infrastructure projects. Worse, exasperated residents might even call for a repeal of the 1 percent tax that local officials spent years putting in place.

“Hopefully, they will see the parks that are being maintained, we’re fully staffed in our police department,” Nicholson said. But eliminating the deduction “could open a can of worms” that could even make it difficult for the city to keep up with financial obligations, he added.

In San Diego, officials drawing up plans for a local tax increase to provide long-term housing to the homeless are also worried. In San Diego County, the elimination of what is commonly called the “SALT” deduction could affect about a third of households, said Greg Cox, a member of the board of supervisors. The average middle-income resident would lose a $16,000 deduction.

“It’s a big hit,” he said. The Republican tax plan is “going to make it very hard to pass any tax increases in the future.”

The fate of the tax deduction is among the thorniest issues facing Republican lawmakers who are rushing to vote on the $1.5 trillion tax bill this year. About 44 million Americans a year take advantage of the tax break to collectively save an estimated $60 billion.

But conservatives have long complained that the deduction is a windfall for high-tax, liberal-leaning states at the expense of low-tax, conservative-leaning states. According to the conservative Tax Foundation, taxpayers in six states — California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas — claim more than half of the dollar value of the deduction.

All of them except Texas are overwhelmingly represented by Democrats.

Republicans have repeatedly attempted to eliminate the provision, most recently in an effort led by President Ronald Reagan in 1986.

“We can’t have the federal government continue to subsidize the states,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a CNBC interview last month. “That’s a major loophole that we’re trying to close in simplifying taxes.”

Some lawmakers even in high-tax states echo that view.

“The question is: Should taxpayers in low-tax states be subsidizing the taxpayers in high-tax states?” Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), a member of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, said this year. “It’s not clear to me why that’s good policy.”

Nearly 30 percent of taxpayers in Pennsylvania use SALT, according to data from the Government Finance Officers Association. On average, those taxpayers claim an average deduction of $11,000.

Supporters of the deduction argue that its elimination will hurt middle-class families. Among taxpayers making more than $100,000, 81 percent claimed the SALT deduction. Without it, supporters say, taxpayers face double taxation — paying federal taxes on income already claimed by state and local taxes.

City leaders speaking out against eliminating the deduction are sometimes putting themselves at odds with their representatives in Congress.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer (D) visited Capitol Hill this week, including a stop by the offices of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a major proponent of the Senate bill.

“It’s a $1.3 billion problem for my city,” Fischer said of the potential elimination of SALT. “That is less than Los Angeles or New York, but that is going to hit a lot of folks.”

“I totally believe we need tax reform. I am a business person, entrepreneur. I am not a career politician,” he said, adding that he wants to make sure his local representatives understand what the city is facing.

Supporters of the deduction specifically point to the potential effect on schools, which typically rely on local property-tax revenue for funding.

The National Education Association estimates that $370 billion for public education would be at risk over the next decade under the Senate plan, and $250 billion under the House plan, assuming local tax rates were adjusted to reflect the loss of the deduction.

“When your state legislatures decide what they need to fund public schools, public libraries, roads, the fire department, they do the math,” said NEA President Lily Eskelsen García. “They say, ‘This is the burden on taxpayers, but they’ll be able to take a reasonable tax deduction on their federal, so it’ll wash out.’ ”

With those deductions gone, she added, “the pressure on states and locals now will be to reduce that tax pressure, because the federal government shifts it back.”

Republican supporters of eliminating the deduction say that those concerns are overblown. The GOP tax bills would raise the standard deduction most Americans take, making it less attractive for taxpayers to itemize their deductions to take advantage of provisions such as SALT.

Even in securely Republican states, such as Texas, the elimination of SALT has become a concern.
Conroe, 40 miles north of Houston, has grown rapidly in recent years. When Steve Williams, the assistant city administrator, began working there in 2005, it had about 35,000 residents. Now, he said, the city has more than doubled, to 83,000 residents, creating a boom in new home construction but also putting more demands on its police departments and schools.

“Our concern is that as the individual tax liability goes up, [residents] are going to pare back on support for school bonds” and other measures to fund local services,” Williams said. “As their tax burden on the federal level increases, they’re going to seek relief at the local level.”

It also could put a damper on the city’s housing market, he said. Much of Conroe’s services are funded by a 2 percent sales tax. A significant portion of that comes from taxing construction materials, he said. But homeownership could become less attractive if the property tax deduction is eliminated or limited, hampering the city’s finances, he said.

Local governments’ fears aren’t confined to the effects of removing the state and local tax deduction. Officials in the District and other cities also worry about the House plan to repeal a form of tax-exempt financing for development called private activity bonds.

Those bonds, which help lure private investors to low-income housing projects and other civic endeavors by effectively allowing them to borrow at municipalities’ low interest rates, have resulted in about 9,000 units of affordable housing in the District since 2010, city officials say. (The Senate bill would retain private activity bonds.)

“If it wasn’t for these private activity bonds,” Esparza Diggs said, “many [cities] wouldn’t be able to expand their airports, or meet their affordable housing needs.”

Robert Mugabe expected to announce resignation in TV address

Zimbabwean president is facing end of 37 years in power after Zanu-PF voted to sack him as party leader


Robert Mugabe sacked as Zanu-PF leader in Zimbabwe – video

Jason Burke and Emma Graham-Harrison in Harare-Sunday 19 November 2017 17.49 GMT


Robert Mugabe, is facing the end of his 37-year rule, as he prepares to address the nation after his party sacked him as its leader and told him to resign as head of state.
Zimbabwe’s president,

Expectation was mounting that he would resign on Sunday night after Zimbabwean state TV said he would “address the nation live from State House”.

In an extraordinary meeting in Harare, the capital, on Sunday morning more than 200 Zanu-PF leaders voted to sack Mugabe as the party’s leader and demanded that the 93-year-old “resign forthwith from his position as head of state” or face impeachment.

The move by his own party significantly weakened the position of Mugabe, who has refused to step down following a military takeover last week, despite huge demonstrations in cities across the country on Saturday demanding that he leave power.

Mugabe has argued that the military takeover is an illegal coup and appears to be hoping that this will trigger regional intervention, sources familiar with his negotiations with the military said.
Zimbabwe’s parliament will reconvene on Tuesday after a week-long suspension and will launch impeachment proceedings immediately if the president has not resigned, MPs said.
The procedure is unprecedented, and it is unclear how long it might take.

Zanu-PF also expelled Grace Mugabe, the divisive first lady, and 20 of her closest associates.
When the motion was passed, removing Mugabe as the head of the party and appointing Emmerson Mnangagwa to replace him, the hall of Zanu-PF delegates broke into cheers, song and dance.

The 200 or so members of the central committee leapt to their feet, many singing Mnangagwa’s name.

“This is the day that is defining the new birth and development of our country,” said Mike Madiro, chairman of one of the provincial party branches that had formally set Mugabe’s dethroning in motion.

Chris Mutsvangwa, head of the powerful war veterans’ association, said Mugabe was running out of time to negotiate his departure and should leave the country while he could.

“We are going all the way,” Mutsvangwa said. “He’s trying to bargain for a dignified exit.”

The Zanu-PF central committee appointed Mnangagwa, the 75-year-old vice-president who was fired by Mugabe almost two weeks ago, as its new interim leader.

Mugabe’s sacking of Mnangagwa precipitated the crisis, with Mnangagwa and the army rapidly launching a previously planned takeover.

Mnangagwa is widely expected to take power when Mugabe leaves office.

A second round of talks on Sunday morning between Mugabe and the army commanders who led the takeover was inconclusive.

In photos posted on the website of the state TV network, Mugabe was shown in a dark suit and tie and standing behind a wooden desk at State House as he shook hands with a procession of generals and the chief of police. Beside him was a television tuned to Al-Jazeera.

According to sources close to the military, the president, who has been kept under house arrest in his sprawling residence in Harare, continues to argue that the takeover is illegal and wants to be allowed to remain in power until the end of his presidential mandate next year. Elections are due to be held before August.

The purge has in effect destroyed the “G40” faction within the party and underlines the degree to which the overthrow of Mugabe’s 37-year rule has been driven more by competition for power within the Zanu-PF than popular anger at a dictatorial and corrupt regime.

Grace Mugabe, 52, has not been seen since the takeover. Sources told the Guardian she was in her husband’s Harare residence when he was detained on Tuesday and had not moved since.

Since taking power, the military has arrested about a dozen senior officials and ministers. Several remain detained. Two senior politicians close to the first lady are believed to have taken refuge with their families in the president’s residence on the night of the military takeover.

Few options are now open to Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe through a mixture of coercion, bribery and revolutionary rhetoric. Support in some branches of the security establishment – such as the police – has evaporated.

Observers say the veteran politician is hoping to oblige the military to depose him by force, which could theoretically trigger an intervention by regional powers.

The South African Development Community (SADC), headed by South Africa, is to meet in Angola on Tuesday to discuss the situation.

Last week the SADC called for a “constitutional” solution to the crisis, which was understood by some to be a call for the military to allow Mugabe to serve out his current electoral mandate as president.

The military has said it has no intention of staying in power but has made it clear that there is little chance of Mugabe remaining in office.

Army commanders have long had good relations with Mnangagwa, a former intelligence chief and veteran Zanu-PF official who was responsible for the repression of opposition parties in successive elections between 2000 and 2008.

The role of Obert Mpofu, the finance minister long seen as a loyal associate of Mugabe who had substantially benefited from his rule, as chairman of the Zanu-PF meeting on Sunday prompted widespread comment. Mpofu said the “outgoing president” had been surrounded by “wrong people”.

His words echoed those of the military commanders who claim last week’s takeover was necessary to remove “criminals” close to the president, a reference to Grace Mugabe and her “G40” faction.
Opposition leaders in Zimbabwe have called for the formation of an inclusive transitional government but risk being sidelined by the powerful army and Zanu-PF.

There are also concerns that the military will maintain significant influence in the future.

“The ruling party have allowed the military to taste political power [and] … We have to expect some role of the armed forces to continue for some time,” said Martin Rupiya, a former Zimbabwean army general.

Knox Chitiyo, of London’s Chatham House, said it was a “momentous time”.

“The military are being held up as the liberators of the country. But it remains to be seen how long that will be the case,” Chitiyo said.

Pressure by Cuba will not pay off

One example is the continued discriminatory practices against Americans in the island. On a recently booked trip I had to Cuba, for example, it turned out that hotel rates were unjustifiably much higher for Americans than for Europeans, so I cancelled my plans.

by Professor Michael R. Czinkota-Nov 18, 2017

( November 18, 2017, Washington DC, Sri Lanka Guardian) This past week, United States relations with Cuba were back in the spotlight. The Trump administration announced new restrictions on travel and trade with Cuba. The rollback of Obama’s measures towards the island’s government is a promise President Trump had made some months ago. The steps are reasonable, since Obama’s agreement with Cuba was insufficient and inequitable. The U.S. gave much and received little in return.

It has been more than a year since the normalization of relations. Clearly, Cuba has been unwilling to change rapidly, and past treaties were insufficiently in achieving a new robust track. One example is the continued discriminatory practices against Americans in the island. On a recently booked trip I had to Cuba, for example, it turned out that hotel rates were unjustifiably much higher for Americans than for Europeans, so I cancelled my plans.

The intention of the hotel was to give a silent retaliation for the years of economic embargo. The focus was on individuals that had no say on the matter and also no ability to change or improve American relations with Havana.

In fact, with the new tight restrictions, American individuals can no longer visit Cuba and groups need a license from the Treasury Department to visit the country. The Cuban tourism industry will feel the effects of U.S. government encouragement of Americans to stay in private houses and avoid hotels and restaurants connected to or owned by the military and security services.

After decades of adverse relationships, isn’t it time to bury the hatchet and bring out the peace pipe. For that, Cuba needs to take a step back and accept new policies which are fair, non-discriminatory and welcoming to visitors, both American and Cuban alike. As a fair trade and commerce relationship is not yet a reality, the United States government needed to demonstrate a stronger position in order to encourage appropriateness.

In addition, it is important to note that seeking improved relations with Havana does not mean forgetting the violations against human and civil rights during the Castro government. The population’s welfare is equally relevant as economic aspects in diplomatic relations, and actions such as expropriations and unjustified prison sentences should still be remembered and repaired. Curative marketing evaluates, carries physical accosting, debt, and destruction until true restitution is made.

Much remains to be done by Cuba, particularly since the United States has already long ago initiated important steps to reflect its own atonement. Cuban pressure to repay for earlier inequities will not work. Only if both parties commit to a fair relationship, will we see commerce between the countries grow and bring benefits and economic growth.

Professor Czinkota (czinkotm@georgetown.edu)teaches international business and trade at Georgetown University and the University of Kent. His key book is International Marketing’ 10 th ed. (with Ilkka Ronkainen), CENGAGE

Saudi Joins United States & Israel To Attack Iran

By Latheef Farook –NOVEMBER 17, 20187

Dramatic political developments are taking place in the Middle East. Few 

months ago even diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel was unthinkable. However the so called enemies have become best of allies today.

Imagine Saudi Arabia, the land of Islam and the rulers claiming to be custodian of two Holy Mosques in Makkah and Madina, joining hands with United States and Israel, the two countries which turned Middle East into a killing field to create Greater Israel, to wage war against Iran.

Now there is only one country which could threaten Israel .That is Iran. Therefore Israel wanted to destroy Iran, in the way it destroyed Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia and now Yemen, to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapon. 

 

Saudi ruling family also consider Iran a threat and Israel an ally.

Contrary to the false image, ruling Ibn Saud family, one of the most corrupted and oppressive regimes in this planet, is a tribal family –a system which was abolished by Islam. Their top priority is to ensure the survival of their family, their power and wealth. To ensure this they would join hands with even devil, as they had shown during the past several decades. Islam was ruthlessly exploited to entrench this family rule and loot the country’s wealth.

Thus the Ibn Saud family’s dependence on US and Israel for their survival is not something unexpected. Oil wealth was lavishly invested to ensure this.

The US. Israel and Saudi war mongers are aware that a war with Iran will drag in Iranian supported Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Thus the need to trigger a political crisis in Lebanon involving Hezbollah to weaken Iran as a prelude to war.

During the past few weeks drum beat of war in the Middle East has risen to a fever-pitch. Saudi Arabia has provoked both an internal domestic and a foreign crisis to permit Salman to realize his grandiose vision to dominate the Middle East.

 

As part of this conspiracy Saudi summoned Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the day after he hosted   Ali Akbar Velayati, senior foreign policy advisor to Ayatollah Khamenei. In Saudi Arabia      Hariri told a Saudi TV audience that he was quitting his job due to “death threats” against him. 

Coverage of Hariri’s statement noted that he spoke haltingly into the camera and looked off-camera several times, indicating that the statement may have been written for him and that he may have delivered it under duress.

Lebanese media reported that on November that Hariri had been summoned to Saudi Arabia, against all expectations. He was placed under house arrest upon his arrival with limited and controlled access to his cell phone, and he was separated from his wife and children. Some sources claim that Hariri’s wife and children are currently banned from leaving Saudi Arabia until further notice   to prevent any “change of heart” from the “former” prime minister after he returns to Beirut. The resignation speech was delivered in hand by Thamer al-Sabhane himself, a Saudi diplomat known for his anti-Shia tweets.

However, things are already backfiring in Lebanon with both Sunnis and Shiite openly declaring their desire to avoid any clash. Hariri’s party even praised Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, calling him a “responsible man” who placed above all the country’s “national interest,” a first in more than 10 years.

Internally, Salman suddenly created an anti-corruption commission and arrested some of the highest level royal princes in the kingdom, including at least four sitting ministers and the son of former king Fahd. The most well-known name on the list, and one of the world’s richest men, was Saudi Prince Al waleed bin Talal who opposed Salman becoming crown prince.

Ibn Saud has been such a bankrupt family they openly support Israel despite all its war crimes against Palestinians. For example Al Waleed told in April last year  that ” I will side with the Jewish nation and its democratic aspirations…and I shall exert all my influence to break any ominous Arab initiatives set to condemn Tel Aviv, because I deem the Arab-Israeli entente and future friendship necessary  to impede the dangerous Iranian encroachment

Meanwhile some senior figures detained in the purge in Saudi Arabia were beaten and tortured so badly during their arrest or subsequent interrogations that they required hospital treatment. The scale of the crackdown, which has brought new arrests each day, is much bigger than Saudi authorities have admitted, with more than 500 people detained and double that number questioned.

Members of the royal family, government ministers and business tycoons were caught up in the sudden wave of arrests orchestrated by Salman, under the banner of an anti-corruption drive.

Some, but not all, of the top figures arrested were singled out for the most brutal treatment, suffering wounds to the body sustained by classic torture methods. There are no wounds to their faces, so they will show no physical signs of their ordeal when they next appear in public.

The purge, which follows an earlier roundup of Muslim clerics, writers, economists and public figures, has created panic in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, particularly among those associated with the old regime of King Abdullah, who died in 2015, with power then passing to his half-brother, King Salman.

Many fear the primary purpose of the crackdown is a move by Salman to knock out all rivals inside. Meanwhile Saudi media reported that Saudi Prince Mansour Bin Muqrin, best friend and business partner of resigned Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri, and seven other people, including senior government officials and a mayor, were killed in a helicopter crash. The helicopter was deliberately targeted by state forces and attacked by a jet fighter because it is believed Bin Muqrin opposed Salman’s succession to the throne.

According to the sources, Bin Muqrin had recently sent a letter to some 1,000 princes urging them to step away from support for Bin Salman’s succession to the throne, pointing out that the youth must take action.The sources claim the attack sends a clear message to others within the royal family that Salman will stop at nothing to silence his critics and those who oppose him.

The New York Times reported that only days before the crackdown, Donald Trump’s senior advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner, close friend of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was in Saudi Arabia where he met with the rulers till early hours in the morning. There seems little doubt therefore that Trump gave a nod of approval. What this points to is that the Trump administration is indulging the Saudi power grab as a quid quo pro in firming up the anti-Iran axis of Washington-Riyadh-Tel Aviv.

Although the Saudi purge has captured the headlines, the danger of a regional war, domestic upheavals and regime change is more likely than at any time in recent memory. As Salman consolidates his power domestically against influential members of the Al Saud ruling family, he is using anti-Shia sectarianism to whip up war hysteria against Iran and the Iran nuclear deal.

It is just one more illustration of how destructive and nihilistic US foreign policy is in the Middle East. Wars, deaths, violence, sectarian hatred never seem to satisfy Washington’s bloodlust. But in taking on Iran, American intrigue may meet its final downfall. Especially because the people of the region are increasingly becoming aware of how malicious American power operates. 

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Bangladesh says it's in talks with Myanmar on Rohingya repatriation deal

Rohingya refugees walk towards a refugee camp after crossing the border in Anjuman Para near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, November 19, 2017. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

Serajul Quadir-NOVEMBER 19, 2017

DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladesh is in negotiations with Myanmar aimed at a deal to repatriate displaced Rohingya and Dhaka’s foreign minister will address the matter at talks in Myanmar this week, the Bangladeshi foreign ministry said on Sunday.

More than 600,000 Muslim Rohingya have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since late August, driven out by a military clearance operation in Buddhist majority Myanmar’s Rakhine State. The Rohingyas’ suffering has caused an international outcry.

“Bangladesh and Myanmar are in the process of negotiation for a bilateral agreement for repatriation of displaced people and expect to form a Joint Working Group to facilitate the repatriation,” said a ministry statement, quoting remarks by Foreign Minister Abul Hasan Mahmood Ali at a meeting with his Japanese counterpart in Dhaka on Sunday.

A senior aide to Ali said he would leave for Myanmar late on Sunday to attend an Asia-Europe (ASEM) meeting on Monday and Tuesday and would stay on another couple of days for bilateral talks on the Rohingya.

The official said Ali hoped for an agreement on allowing Rohingya to return to Myanmar. “Both countries have almost reached an understanding on this issue and there are a few points (still) to be agreed ... We hope to reach an agreement.”

There was no immediate comment from Myanmar. On Nov. 1, Myanmar insisted it was ready to set up a repatriation process but voiced fears Bangladesh was delaying an accord to first get international aid money. A senior Bangladesh home ministry official described the accusation as outrageous.

ALLEGATIONS OF ETHNIC CLEANSING

Stung by international criticism and accusations of ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has said Rohingyas who can prove they were resident in Myanmar would be accepted back.

Last week a United Nations General Assembly committee called on Myanmar to end military operations that have “led to the systematic violation and abuse of human rights” of Rohingya.

The move revived a U.N. resolution that was dropped last year due to Myanmar’s progress on human rights.

However, in the past three months there has been a Rohingya exodus to Bangladesh after the Myanmar military began an operation against Rohingya militants who attacked 30 security posts and an army base in Rakhine on Aug. 25.

Myanmar’s army released a report on Monday denying all allegations of rapes and killings by security forces, days after replacing the general in charge of the military operation.

Top U.N. officials have denounced the violence as a classic example of ethnic cleansing. The Myanmar government has denied these allegations.

Rohingyas have been denied citizenship in Myanmar, where many Buddhists see them as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.

A U.S. congressional delegation, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and the foreign ministers of Germany, Sweden and Japan visited Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar at the weekend to raise awareness of their plight.

“We support Bangladesh’s efforts towards a lasting solution, including the repatriation of displaced persons,” Japan’s Taro Kona told Ali at their meeting, where Tokyo pledged $18.6 million in aid to ease the Rohingya crisis.

Mogherini told reporters: “More than putting pressure, our approach has always been and will continue to be to offer a negotiating space, encourage the taking care of a situation that is not going to disappear.”

Shan State: Burma’s hidden humanitarian crisis

People celebrate Shan State Army Day on May 21, 2017 At Loi Kaw Wan, Muang Sad in Shan State Burma. Source: Shutterstock

By Daniel Maxwell | 17th November 2017

THE violent campaign of land clearance and ethnic cleansing towards the Rohingya people is finally being exposed by media networks across the globe, intensifying the pressure on governments to tackle the unacceptable conduct of security forces in Burma (Myanmar). But as this is happening, ethnic groups on the opposite side of the country are suffering in silence while international donors withdraw essential food aid which these persecuted minority communities are entirely dependent on.

There are over 6,200 refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in six camps along the Shan-Thai border in Eastern Burma. The IDP camps at Loi Lam, Loi Sarm Sip, Loi Kaw Wan, Loi Tai Leng, Koung Jor, Gawng Mung Mong were set up in the late 1990s, after the Burmese military began a notorious “scorched earth” offensive against 1,400 villages in Shan State.

During this brutal campaign, over 300,000 people were driven from their homes, and hundreds of villagers were tortured, killed, and raped – in circumstances which are remarkably similar to those under which Rohingya currently suffer.

In this Feb. 17, 2015, photo provided by the Eleven Media Group, Burmese soldiers carrying weapons patrol on a road in Kokang, northeastern Shan State, more than 800km northeast of Yangon. Source: AP Photo/Eleven Media Group

The land from which these communities were driven, has long since been seized by the military and to this day villagers are unable to return home. Many of the women, children and elderly who escaped the violence fled to refugee camps in Thailand, where they remain in limbo, having never been formally recognised as refugees by UNHCR.

Refusing to leave their ancestral lands, many villagers opted to establish camps along remote sections of the mountainous Thai-Shan border. Given the difficult conditions in these isolated camps, communities have struggled to grow sufficient quantities of rice to feed themselves, and for years the families in these camps have relied on international donations of rice, and other essential foodstuffs.

SEE ALSO: Rohingya crisis: Burmese military slammed after clearing itself of any wrongdoing

Food aid from international donors to camps along the Shan-Thai border was cut off in October 2017, creating drastic shortages of food and health suppliers. According to Charm Tong from the Shan Human Rights Group, conditions in the camps are already dire, “6,000 people have lost food. The situation is desperate. This is a crisis for all on the Shan border.” Unless the delivery of international aid is resumed soon, these communities will run out of food.

The Myanmar Times reported that the shortage of aid was also having a detrimental impact on the education of students, of which there are over 1,000 across the six camps. According to Sai Pang, who manages Loi Kaw Wan camp, since the aid cuts took effect, at least 30 students from each camp have dropped out of school because they no longer receive the assistance they need to invest their time in learning.

People watch a burning mosque in Lashio, northern Shan State during sectarian violence in 2013. Source: AP.

Organisations such as The Border Consortium have stopped providing food aid to IDP camps as they adopt a new strategy which is “focused on supporting the voluntary return, resettlement and reintegration of displaced communities from Burma/Myanmar between 2017 and 2019.” However, communities living in the IDP camps are fearful to return to their lands while the Burmese military continues its operations to systematically depopulate the country’s ethnic states.

Burma’s government has claimed that it will provide the necessary aid to feed thousands of displaced people who are now suffering as a result of these aid cuts. Burmese President’s Office spokesman U Zaw Htay recently issued a statement, calling on IDP camps to inform Naypyidaw of their needs and request aid directly from the central government.

SEE ALSO: Rohingya child refugee dies in Thai immigration detention

It is perhaps unsurprising that Shan refugees are suspicious of the government’s offer to deliver aid the IDP camps, suspecting it may simply be a, “stunt to divert attention from the Burma Army’s ongoing military operations to systematically depopulate the country’s ethnic states.”

The Shan State Refugee Committee released a statement explaining their scepticism: “The fact that the Burma Army is continuing its systematic brutality against the ethnic peoples, with ongoing impunity, is what is preventing the displaced communities on the Shan-Thai border from returning home. The Burmese government’s offer to assist the displaced Shan, while keeping silent on the Burma Army’s ongoing systematic crimes, thus rings hollow indeed.”

“We cannot yet return to our homes, because our villages are now derelict, or have been occupied by the Burma Army, their militia or the United Wa State Army. Despite the peace process, the Burma Army has expanded its troops, and is continuing to carry out military operations and attacks around our villages. Villagers continue to be arrested, tortured and killed,” it continued.

Burmese soldiers carrying launchers walk on a road as they patrol in Kokang, northeastern Shan State. Source: AP.

“We appeal for our rights as refugees to be respected – the right to receive adequate humanitarian aid, and to be given protection until we can return in safety and dignity to our homes once there is a political settlement and genuine peace in Shan State.”

SEE ALSO: Burma: Watchdog wants probe into alleged torture, death of civilians in Shan State

Burma’s military has spent decades doing everything in its power to expel ethnic groups from the country, pushing them over the borders into neighbouring countries when possible, in the same way it is doing with the Rohingya in Rakhine State. The cuts in international aid to these vulnerable communities along border, give the army a greater chance of obtaining these goals, knowing that these people will not risk returning home, and face either starvation in the mountains or an exodus across the Thai border.

With the inhumane actions of the Burmese military making daily headlines around the world, it’s essential that the plight of victims in Eastern Burma not be forgotten, and that international donors respond to their pleas for assistance before the food shortages result in yet another humanitarian crisis.

Germany Is a Coal-Burning, Gas-Guzzling Climate Change Hypocrite

Angela Merkel hasn’t come close to earning her reputation for leadership on climate change.

Steam rises from the Neurath coal-fired power plant operated by German utility RWE, which stands near open-pit coal mines that feed it with coal, on Nov. 13, near Bergheim, Germany. (Lukas Schulze/Getty Images) 

BY PAUL HOCKENOS-NOVEMBER 13, 2017, 12:35 PM

The latest round of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which runs from Nov. 6 to 17, is loaded with symbolism. The conference is being chaired by island nation of Fiji, which is severely affected by rising seas and desertification caused by climate change. The location of the meeting in Bonn, Germany, meanwhile, was intended to underscore the cooperation between those responsible for global warming and those in the path of its destruction. Of all the cities of the industrial world, Bonn was selected not just because it is the seat of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, but also because it is in Germany, the industrial giant that has an international reputation as a pioneer and righteous leader in climate protection.

Just this summer, German Chancellor Angela Merkel read U.S. President Donald Trump the riot act for pulling out of the Paris climate accord, chiding the United States for ignoring and perpetuating climate change. For years, Germany’s Energiewende, or renewable energy transition, was held up as a best practice for other nations to follow. After all, in just 15 years Europe’s biggest economy turned a third of its electricity generation green by subsidizing investments in solar energy and wind power. In doing so, it added 300,000 jobs to the economy. Even while it was in the process of phasing out nuclear power, Germany managed the transition while its factories hummed along, the economy posting record growth and trade surpluses. In the late aughts, Merkel was dubbed “the climate chancellor” for her engagement on behalf of the climate.

Yet Germany’s image as selfless defender of the climate, which was once largely deserved, is now a transparent fiction. Germany has fallen badly behind on its pledges to sink its own greenhouse gas pollutants. In fact, Germany’s carbon emissions haven’t declined for nearly a decade and the German Environment Agency calculated that Germany emitted 906 million tons of CO2 in 2016 — the highest in Europe — compared to 902 million in 2015. And 2017’s interim numbers suggest emissions are going to tick up again this year.

Germany is now in serious danger of hitting neither its 2020 nor its 2030 emissions targets, the very benchmarks that it browbeat other nations into adopting at previous climate conferences.

 Leading German think tanks agree that Germany can’t, at its current rate, slash emissions enough in the next two years to reduce its carbon output by 40 percent (compared to its 1990 levels) or 55 percent by 2030. The Berlin-based think tank Agora Energiewende calculates that Germany has thus far brought its emissions down by only about 30 percent since 1990, much of the reduction coming after unification, when eastern Germany’s industrial economy collapsed. “Only 30 percent instead of 40 percent less CO2 is not a little off the mark, but rather this would constitute a blatant failure,” said Patrick Graichen, director of Agora Energiewende, referring to the 2020 target. “Failure to reach the 2020 climate change goals impacts not only the climate, but also Germany’s international role, which all governments since [the 1982 to 1998 chancellor] Helmut Kohl have worked toward for years.”

If Germany falls short in 2020, experts say, then the much more ambitious 2030 reductions will almost surely be out of reach, to say nothing of Berlin’s stated goal of cutting emissions by 95 percent by 2050.

Germany’s hypocrisy is ultimately a failure of its political leadership. Merkel’s recent term in office, explained R. Andreas Kraemer of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies in Potsdam, was a triumph, he said, for the fossil fuel lobby. Most egregiously, he said, Germany slapped a tax on self-generated solar power that is used in private homes and offices. “The rate of installation of wind and solar power was slowed by government fiat and in violation of market forces,” Kraemer said.
But the biggest problems are ones that German politicians have allowed to linger for years, if not decades: Germany’s prodigious coal production for coal-fired power plants, on the one hand, and its sheltered automobile industry on the other.

Germany is Europe’s largest producer and burner of coal, which accounted for 40.3 percentof net power production in 2017: 15.5 percent from hard coal and 24.8 percent from lignite, also known as brown coal, among the dirtiest of fossil fuels, which Germany mines more of than any other country in the world. Germany’s electricity sector itself is responsible for more than a third of the country’s CO2 emissions. Even more damning: Germany is still digging new open-cast mine pits — as well as subsidizing the industry as a whole, although it has promised to phase out coal in the indefinite future (hard coal use will end in 2018). Among Europe’s power plants, Germany’s brown coal stations constitute six out of 10 of the worst polluters. The lignite power plants, which run 24/7 year-in, year-out, produce so much power that German utilities sell the surplus abroad.

The reason behind Germany’s commitment to coal is not primarily, as the coal lobby claims, to shoulder the burden left by the nuclear reactors coming offline, or to provide backup for the renewables at times when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow. Experts say that all of the country’s coal plants could be shut down by 2030 — and German industry wouldn’t feel the pinch. But rather it’s all about the lignite-mining jobs (about 20,000 in total) in the economically hard-hit regions of western Rhineland and eastern Lusatia, which are Social Democratic Party of Germany strongholds, and the powerful clout of the mining and energy lobbies, not least Germany’s third-biggest union: IG Bergbau, Chemie, Energie.

This is why only one political party — the Greens — addressed Germany’s coal industry and climate change in the recent election campaign. It said that the 20 dirtiest coal plants could be shuttered at once. None of the other parties even had climate protection among their top 10 priorities. The Social Democratic candidate Martin Schulz barely mentioned it on the campaign trail. There are voices in the Social Democratic Party, the Left, and the liberal Free Democratic Party that are for calling off the 2020 target of a 40 percent CO2 reduction in order to protect the coal industry.

Meanwhile, other countries are doing what Germany won’t. Seven European Union countries already burn not a nugget of coal, while France, Great Britain, and Finland plan to end coal generation in 10 to 15 years.

The second bugbear is Germany’s transportation sector, which is largely but not exclusively dominated by its storied automobile industry. German car companies long received special treatment by the federal government, ranging from tax benefits and premiums for the disposal of old cars to millions in direct payments for research and development. This is one reason why the transport sector’s carbon footprint has grown continuously since 1990. The culprits are foremost cars and trucks that run on oil-based fuels.

German automakers and parts suppliers are the economy’s largest industrial sector, underwriting over 800,000 jobs in Germany.

 With an annual turnover of $464 billion — around 20 percent of total German industry revenue — most Germans probably condone some degree of government protection for the industry. But recently this patience has been sorely tested, as it’s become clear that the auto industry isn’t just neglecting the environment, but also its own consumers: two years ago, German automakers were caught red-handed by U.S. authorities cheating on carbon emissions tests, a scandal dubbed “Dieselgate.” Then, this year, German media busted the biggest automakers for operating a cartel since the 1990s; Audi, BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen, and Porsche colluded to limit the development of technology, including emissions control, in order to stifle competition. A U.S. lawsuit accuses them of fixing prices “premised on superior German engineering, while secretly stunting incentives to innovate.”

But Germany’s automakers remain undeterred. Just this week, in fact on the third day of the Bonn conference, information was leaked that scandal-riven Volkswagen as well as Germany’s outgoing foreign minister had lobbied hard for and won last-minute changes to soften the EU’s new CO2 emission standards for conventional cars. The current bill, inspired by Californian climate policy, foresees the European automobile industry cutting the CO2 emissions of its vehicles by 30 percent by 2030. Before the German intervention, violators of the limits would have faced stiff financial sanctions. Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, and Sweden also wrote to the European Commission, urging it to take a tougher line on the automotive sector. But their pleas were ignored.

Germany’s shameful record over the last four years is largely attributable to the governing grand coalition: the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats pay plenty of lip service to environmental issues, but when push comes to shove they always battle for the interests of the coal and car industries. The presence of the Greens in a possible four-party coalition — the most likely next government, which is presently under negotiation — could reverse Germany’s backsliding. But the going is already tough: In the early stages of coalition talks, the Christian Democrats and liberal Free Democrats forced the Greens to back down from their demand to shut down all of Germany’s coal plants and phase out combustion-engine transportation by 2030. This ensures that Germany won’t be anywhere near the front of the class in combating climate change anytime soon – and that the country’s lingering reputation for environmental leadership will become increasingly tenuous.

Correction, Nov. 14, 2017: Coal accounted for 40.3 percent of German net power production in 2017: 15.5 percent from hard coal and 24.8 percent from lignite, also known as brown coal. An earlier version of this article provided incorrect numbers for German gross power production in 2016.