Headline News 14/04/2016

Headlines:

• America’s Failure in Afghanistan

• Turkey Exploits Syrian Refugees
• Sissi Sells Parts of Egypt

Details:

America’s Failure in Afghanistan

It was almost 2 years ago that Barack Obama addressed the American people regarding the situation in Afghanistan, claiming victory over Al Qaeda and the Taliban and its ‘extremist allies.’ Yet since his announcement to withdraw troops from the country he has had to make a U-turn, with troops now set to leave the nation by the end of 2016. However if victory has been achieved then why the delay on exiting Afghanistan? Since the bulk of US troops have left Afghanistan the Taliban have been going from strength to strength with attacks upon the capital and more recently the announcement of a spring offensive, named ‘Operation Omari’ in memory of Mullah Omar. The Taliban said in a statement they would “employ large-scale attacks on enemy positions across the country”. With the announcement coming at a time of extreme political pressure for the Afghan government to negotiate peace with the Taliban. The American plan for peace to prevail in Afghanistan as long the current regime, loyal to them, remains in place is on the brink of collapse as pressure pikes up on the regime to cut a deal quickly, it is not a surprise then that the Taliban further said their scholars, elders and leaders will open a dialogue with the government forces to give up their opposition to the group and join their ranks to safeguard them. After a decade of war, after using all its might, America has failed in Afghanistan.

Turkey Exploits Syrian Refugees

Under Turkey's new employment law, 0.074% of the 2.1 million Syrian refugees were given permission to apply for work permits. This was in response to Turkey's promise to take refugees from Europe as it attempts to become warm with the EU. Whilst this law was made to deal with the rising refugee population, it has had the opposite effect. Syrians have complained of exploitation in the form of low wages, mistreatment due to lack of accountability and being harassed by authorities due to their illegal status. Employers have refused to offer their Syrian staff contracts as it is cheaper to keep them in their current state, and with the local Turkish population being replaced by the Syrian refugees for this reason, Turkey is paying the price for not doing what was necessary in the first place which was to end the conflict.

Sissi Sells Parts of Egypt

Abdul Fattah el-Sissi’s sales of two strategic Red Sea islands toSaudi Arabiahas kicked off a storm of vociferous opposition. The announcement that a team of Egyptian experts has concluded that the islands of Tiran and Sanafir at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba were inside Saudi territorial waters has taken Egyptians by surprise, raising criticism by some that the move amounted to a territorial sell-off to the oil-rich Saudis at a time when Egypt’s battered economy needs all the help it can get. Tiran is the larger of the two islands and is closer to Egypt's southern Sinai coast. It is associated in the mind of many Egyptians with their country's four wars against the Jewish entity between 1948 and 1973, a time of nationalistic fervor and patriotism. More recently, Tiran has become a popular destination for tourists. Hardly anyone in Egypt had thought of Tiran, the better known of the two islands, as anything but Egyptian territory for generations. But the government now says that Saudi Arabia in 1950 merely placed the islands in Egypt's custody to defend them against possible attack by the Jewish entity. Now, according to that narrative, Riyadh is able to defend the island and is simply taking its own territory. Curiously, the pro-el-Sissi media has gone to great lengths to prove, even justify, Saudi Arabia's claim to the islands. In the same vein, a Foreign Ministry statement lauded the decision as the fruit of "more than six years of hard and long work." "Egypt has not surrendered a single square inch of its territory under any condition," the top state newspaper Al-Ahram said in its Monday editorial. "But it will be unreasonable to deny our brothers their right to holding on to their own territory when all documents prove their ownership." Under Sissi, Egypt has suffered from economic collapse and now like his predecessor Hosni Mubarak, he is using brute force to remain in power. But his incompetency is now clear for all to see and that’s why he is selling parts of the country to cover his failures.