بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Headline News 7/11/2021
Headlines:
Cop26: Conference is a PR Event
US Okays Sale of Advanced Air-to-Air Missiles to Saudi Arabia
Top Pakistani Security Official Blasts West's Afghan Policy as Abandonment
Details:
Cop26: Conference is a PR Event
Greta Thunberg has now left the stage after a short but burning critique of Cop26. “The leaders are not doing nothing, they are actively creating loopholes and shaping frameworks to benefit themselves and to continue profiting from this destructive system,” she said. “The Cop has turned into a PR event,” she added. [Source: The Guardian]
The young activist’s remarks are accurate but do not go far enough. Unless the root cause behind climate change is addressed, adopting a carbon zero strategy is unlikely to the save the planet. Like with so many global issues the root cause behind global warming is Capitalism. Capitalism places emphasis on production, exponential growth and profits above everything else. Subsequently, the incessant focus on growth at the expense of distribution of wealth has unnecessarily increased greenhouses gases in the atmosphere. Without banning Capitalism for good, climate change like ending poverty before it will never work.
US Okays Sale of Advanced Air-to-Air Missiles to Saudi Arabia
The U.S. State Department approved its first major arms sale to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia under U.S. President Joe Biden with the sale of 280 air-to-air missiles valued at up to $650 million, the Pentagon said on Thursday. While Saudi Arabia is an important partner in the Middle East, U.S. lawmakers have criticized Riyadh for its involvement in the war in Yemen, a conflict considered one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters. They have refused to approve many military sales for the kingdom without assurances U.S. equipment would not be used to kill civilians. The Pentagon notified Congress of the sale on Thursday. If approved, the deal would be the first sale to Saudi Arabia since the Biden administration adopted a policy of selling only defensive weapons to the Gulf ally. The State Department had approved the sale on Oct. 26, a spokesperson said, adding that the air-to-air missile sale comes after "an increase in cross-border attacks against Saudi Arabia over the past year." After the Trump administration's friendly relationship with Riyadh, the Biden administration recalculated its approach to Saudi Arabia, a country with which it has severe human rights concerns but which is also one of Washington's closest U.S. allies in countering the threat posed by Iran. The package would include 280 AIM-120C-7/C-8 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM), 596 LAU-128 Missile Rail Launchers (MRL) along with containers and support equipment, spare parts, U.S. Government and contractor engineering and technical support. Despite approval by the State Department, the notification did not indicate that a contract has been signed or that negotiations have concluded. [Source: Reuters]
What is the point of buying weapons from America, when their main purpose is strengthen the Kingdom against other Muslim countries?
Top Pakistani Security Official Blasts West's Afghan Policy as Abandonment
The international community risks fueling a humanitarian catastrophe in Afghanistan unless it engages with the new Taliban regime and lifts financing and aid restrictions on Kabul, Pakistan's National Security Adviser Moeed Yusuf said on Thursday. Western nations have been reluctant to engage with the Taliban since the group's takeover of Afghanistan in August and have slashed assistance to the aid-dependent nation while hobbling its economy by limiting access to foreign reserves and enacting strict trade measures. Nations must “engage with the new political reality immediately and constructively”, Mr Yusuf told the Middle East Institute. “[The] number one [reason is] for humanitarian assistance, because if there is no humanitarian assistance when winter is around the corner, who's going to suffer? The average of man and woman who we all profess to wanting to protect,” he said. The current “wait-and-see” approach from the West, he added, was “tantamount to abandonment” that risked creating the same conditions of economic collapse and shattered leadership that allowed the Taliban to gain prominence in the early 1990s. Two UN food agencies recently said 22.8 million people would face “acute food insecurity” in Afghanistan in November, including 8.7 million who could face “emergency-level” food shortages. Already, reports from rural areas show some infants are malnourished and even dying of hunger. Pakistan has long engaged with the Taliban and was one of three nations to recognise the group when they last ruled in Afghanistan from 1996-2001. Western nations have for decades accused Islamabad of playing a double game in Afghanistan by providing financial and logistical support to the Taliban while also accepting US military aid. Islamabad has long denied the assertions. Mr Yusuf said it was not in his country's interest to have an exclusively Taliban regime in Kabul and he instead called for an “inclusive” and “moderate” regime. He said Pakistan would have to be “mad” to want an outcome where it has a “neighbour that has no money to run the country, no real experience to govern and I'm left with a border of 1,600 miles that for four decades has cost me millions of refugees, a terrorism problem, internally displaced people and just since 9/11, over 80,000 casualties". “[The] idea that this is what Pakistan would have hoped for is irrational, it doesn't make any sense.” All major countries, including the US, need to ensure Afghanistan's stability or else groups like the country's ISIS affiliate will expand their reach and attack other nations, he [Source: The National]
The US wants Pakistan to pick up the pieces in Afghanistan, as Washington concentrates its efforts on China’s containment. However, Yusuf is upset that Pakistan will have to pay for the cost of keeping Afghanistan afloat and also feeding its people. Would it not have been better for Pakistan to formally annex Afghanistan, so that the resources of both countries could be used to build a brighter future?