Wednesday, February 16, 2022

Federal Supreme Court of Iraq Ruling: Oil and Gas Law is unconstitutional

Wednesday, February 16, 2022 No comments

On Tuesday, the Federal Supreme Court of Iraq issued several rulings regarding the export of oil in the Kurdistan region of Iraq outside the approval of the federal government.

The court decided the following:

Ruling that the Oil and Gas Law is unconstitutional and repealed it for violating the provisions of the constitutional articles.

- Obligating the region to hand over oil to the federal government, specifically the Ministry of Oil.

The plaintiff has the right to pursue the nullity of the oil contracts that the regional government concluded with foreign parties regarding oil.

- Obligating the two parties to review all contracts concluded for auditing to ensure the region’s share of the budget.

Charge the defendant with fees and expenses.

The decision was passed by a majority, with only two members dissenting.

It is noteworthy that the Federal Court held, earlier Tuesday, the hearing of the case (59 federal) regarding the export of oil in the Kurdistan region of Iraq outside the approval of the federal government.

Monday, January 24, 2022

2:31 A Week In Review: January 23, 2022 world news recap

Monday, January 24, 2022 No comments

A Week In Review: January 23, 2022 world news recap

Sunday, January 09, 2022

Afghanistan under Taliban, replenishing the military with Taliban fighters

Sunday, January 09, 2022 No comments

Spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defense, Enayatullah Khwarizmi, confirmed that so far 80% of the Afghan army has been prepared, and the number of the army is scheduled to reach 100,000 soldiers, including members of the former army, and the priority in the new Afghan army will be for the Mujahideen.

Afghan caretaker foreign minister visits Tehran, Iran

Sunday, January 09, 2022 No comments

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, met this evening, Sunday, with the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan Maulvi Amir Khan Mottaki and his accompanying delegation.

According to Afghan news sources, the Foreign Minister Maulvi Amir Khan Mottaki was quoted as saying that had discussed with Iranian officials trade, oil, transit, politics, the current situation and security issues, which would have good results.

Friday, December 03, 2021

Afghanistan’s Taliban leader Issues a Decree on Rights of Women

Friday, December 03, 2021 No comments

Translation of full text:

_____________________

Decree of His Eminence the Commander of the Faithful on Women's Rights

In the name of God, the most gracious, the most merciful

Under the direction of the leadership of the Islamic Emirate, all officials, distinguished scholars, and tribal leaders must take serious steps regarding the necessity of observing the following rights for women:

The consent of the adult woman is required in the marriage (when the husband is competent, and there is no fear of corruption or fitnah). No one has the right to compel a woman or force her to marry.

A woman is not property; she is a free and authentic human being, and no one has the right to marry her in exchange for resolving the conflict.

A woman whose husband has died is free to determine her fate after the expiry of her waiting period (four months and ten days or the delivery of a pregnancy), and neither the brother-in-law (the husband’s brother) nor anyone else has the right to marry her against her will, provided that competence is taken into account and that there is no sedition or corruption.

Taking the dowry from the second husband is a legal right for the woman.

A woman whose husband has died has a fixed right (Fard & Ta`sib) to the inheritance of her husband, children, parents, and the rest of her relatives, and no one can prevent her from taking her share in the inheritance.

Whoever has more than one woman under him, he is charged with justice between them and giving each of them their legal rights.

In order to implement the provisions stipulated in the best way, the following government agencies must take the necessary measures in their regard:

The Ministry of Hajj and Endowments is charged with guiding scholars and preachers to educate people about women’s rights, not to oppress them, and to give them their rights, in Friday sermons and through awareness programs and preaching councils.

Assigning the Ministry of Culture and Information to publish targeted awareness programs (through targhib & tarhib) about women’s rights, through its various media (written and audio). In order for scholars to be alert and public awareness and education about the legitimate rights of women, it would be easier to deal with matters and prevent injustice.

The High Court of the Supreme Court is instructed to direct all courts to register cases relating to women's rights, especially bereaved women, in a fundamental manner, so that they do not despair from obtaining their rights and repel injustice.

The governors of states and directorates shall cooperate with the aforementioned ministries and courts in implementing all the provisions of this decree.

Peace, mercy and blessings of God

The leadership position of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

28/4/1443 AH

12/8/1400 AH

3/12/2021 AD

_____________

Friday, November 12, 2021

Ford: Assad won the war and Washington failed to unite the opposition

Friday, November 12, 2021 No comments

The former US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, admits the failure of US policy there, and the unification of the Syrian opposition, considering that the recent visit of the UAE Foreign Minister to Damascus confirms Assad's victory in the war.

The former US ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, said that "US policy has failed to establish a Syrian government through negotiations."

Ford added in an exclusive interview with "France 24" that "there are many divisions within the ranks of the Syrian opposition, from the beginning, and US policy has failed to unite the ranks of the opposition groups."

Noting that "the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is present, and controls 70 percent of the Syrian territory, including major cities, the armed opposition is unable to remove al-Assad," he stressed that "despite the destruction of the Syrian economy, but in the end al-Assad won the war." eligibility.”

He continued, "I think that the Arab countries, not only the UAE, but also Egypt and Jordan, have recognized that the Syrian government is staying and continues to be in power."

The former US ambassador to Syria acknowledged that "the Syrian government will remain, and the Arab countries must find a way to coexist with it."

While he revealed that "there is no American politician who supports the idea of restoring diplomatic relations with Damascus," he considered that "the United States has circumstances that differ with the Arab countries, Syria's neighbors."

He also admitted that "Washington understood that it would be difficult for it to oppose Arab efforts to find a way of coexistence with the Syrian government that continues in power in Damascus. This does not mean that Washington is happy with Arab efforts to coexist with Damascus," stressing that "Washington is unable to offer an alternative to the Arab strategy." That we saw with UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan."

Ford also ruled out imposing sanctions on Arab regimes that restore relations with Damascus, noting that "President Biden's administration is currently focusing on the Asia file."

Ford's position came after the UAE Foreign Minister's visit to the Syrian capital, Damascus, last Tuesday, where he met President Assad, and said from there that "Syria, led by Assad, is capable of overcoming challenges."

And the UAE foreign minister said last March that "Syria's return to its Arab surroundings is inevitable, and it is in the interest of Syria and the region."

In conclusion, the former US ambassador to Syria also acknowledged that “the United States bears responsibility for what happened in Syria,” and said, “We sent arms to groups open to the idea of finding a negotiated solution,” referring to the opposition, which he had assured in the year 2019 to "expect nothing from Washington."

On June 17, 2017, Ford admitted that the Americans had given the Syrian opposition false hope, contrary to American expectations and ambitions.

And the former US ambassador admitted last May that "Washington cannot remove Assad, and the elections are a failure of its policy," and that "the Americans are convinced that Assad will remain president of Syria until the next elections."

In a similar position to Ford, former US official Jeffrey Feltman said last January that "Washington's policy in Syria in the past two eras failed to achieve any tangible results, and that President Assad is now militarily stronger."

Two days ago, Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra confirmed that "the time has come for Syria to return to the Arab League."

In the context of these developments, the Israeli newspaper "Jerusalem Post" commented on the visit of the UAE Foreign Minister to Damascus, and asked: Does the UAE's openness to Syria indicate a major transformation in the region? It said that "the UAE and other countries made quiet initiatives to Damascus for years, and there is consensus emerging between the UAE, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and its partners, that the time has come to bring Syria and its regime out of isolation.

"The visit is widely seen as an indication of regional efforts to end the diplomatic isolation of President Assad," France 24 said.

____

Friday, November 05, 2021

Saudi Arabia: The Hariri and Khashoggi files are an example of media failure

Friday, November 05, 2021 No comments

Exactly four years ago, Saad Hariri spent his first night in detention in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, by order of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The latter was in the process of carrying out a coup in Lebanon, re-shuffling the cards in the Levant. After this coup failed inside Lebanon, Western and Arab countries intervened to rescue Hariri from captivity and return him to Beirut.

Bin Salman did not preach, and repeated the crime a year later, in his country's consulate in Istanbul, where Jamal Khashoggi was murdered. No one in the world objected to what the Rising Prince had done within the confines of his kingdom. But the two crimes of kidnapping Hariri and killing Khashoggi left him in more embarrassment than the aggression on Yemen. The crime that a besieged people has been subjected to, continuously for more than six years, is being waged by Ibn Salman with full Western support, breached from time to time by slight criticism from American or European officials, while they leave their official positions, or when they want to blackmail the milking cow in Riyadh.

Hariri's kidnapping crime was the basis. The Saudi crown prince did not pay for it, which encouraged him to commit others. Khashoggi's murder may have been a direct result of bin Salman's impunity after he kidnapped the prime minister of a supposedly sovereign country in the twenty-first century. It can also be concluded that the failure to hold him accountable, even verbally, for his actions on November 4, 2017, made him dare to repeat the coup attempt in Jordan, where he could not invoke confronting the non-existent Iranian influence, nor fighting Hezbollah and its arsenal. Today, it is opening a new chapter of recklessness in Lebanon, by punishing it and seeking to bring about political change in it, through blackmail and threats, under the pretext of statements made by a media person who happened to become, after that, the Minister of Information. George Kordahi's case is also based on the passing of the crime that took place four years ago, without any blame. The former Lebanese prime minister acted like a Saudi citizen, seeking the consent of the guardian, by all possible means. But the problem was that official Lebanon had also given up its right. Despite the passage of four years since bin Salman’s aggression, the authority agreed to be in the position of the accused, not the accused, which prompted the Saudi regime to carry out more attacks on the “younger brother”: the Lebanese security services help their Saudi counterparts in the fight against drugs, so the reward is penalties in the commercial field . (Former) Foreign Minister Charbel Wahba makes a verbal mistake against Saudi Arabia, so he is forced to resign. George Qardahi says a word of truth about the criminal war on Yemen, so Ibn Salman decides to punish the whole of Lebanon.

The problem is not so much with the emir's recklessness as it is with the authority that has made Lebanon a country "with low walls". The strong performance of that authority in November 2017, which eventually led to the release of the prime minister, was quickly wasted in the following days. The crime of kidnapping Hariri, humiliating him and forcing him to resign, was an occasion to correct part of the distortion in the dysfunctional relationship between the Saudi regime and Lebanon. The latter was not required to wage war, but rather his duty was to manage the post-crisis phase in a manner that preserves the country's rights and dignity, and deters Ibn Salman from repeating his crime. Leaving him in this way, he turned the crime of kidnapping the prime minister, as was the killing of Khashoggi later, into a public relations problem that Ibn Salman addresses by spending some money on image-improving companies, and encouraging him to make Lebanon a servile country that obeys his orders. As usual, official Lebanon is looking for a way to acquiesce again, ignoring that whoever kidnapped a prime minister one day, without anyone questioning him, will repeat it in the coming days. This is the conclusion that Najib Mikati should be aware of today, while he is talking about “predominantly the national interest.” Achieving this “interest” by conceding to bin Salman again and again means placing the neck of the concessioner between two future options: slapping and kicking at the Ritz-Carlton, or sawing off in a consulate.

__________

Source: Alakhbar

Wednesday, November 03, 2021

Two competing stories about the US-Iranian armed forces confrontation in Sea of Oman

Wednesday, November 03, 2021 No comments

On November 3, 2011, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards boarded a tanker carrying oil in the Sea of Oman. US forces in the area tried to recover the tanker, prompting confrontation between the two forces. The tanker was ultimately directed to Iranian territorial waters, US forces withdrew. Some media outlets explained that the second tanker was carrying Iranian oil, which was transferred from an Iranian tanker. This was the preliminary report.

A second report published by a telegram account connected with the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps provide a different account. This report claims that sometime ago, US forces intercepted an Iranian tanker loaded with Iranian oil on its way to Venezuela. US forces boarded that tanker, transferred its content to a second tanker and let the crew of the Iranian tanker go. The Crew reported to Iranian authorities what happened and described the tanker used by US forces. Days ago, Iranian auth
orities identified the same tanker used by US forces in this earlier incident in the area and continued to monitor it. When the tanker was loaded with oil from some country in the region and started its journey out of the Gulf, it was intercepted by Iran’s revolutionary guards corps in the Sea of Oman and directed it to Iranian territorial waters while US tried several attempts to rescue the tanker, but failed.

As of this writing, no official statement was issued by US and Iran governments. It is likely that now the tanker is in Iranian waters, an official statement will be released by the Iranian authorities.

It should be noted however that the second report is the more likely the factual one when cross-referencing other events. US authorities under the Trump administration have already disclosed that US forces intercepted Iranian shipments of oil to Venezuela, seized the oil, and sold it. This event might be the payback for that event.

Developing Story: Iran says thwarts US attempt to 'steal' oil in Oman Sea

Saturday, October 30, 2021

Bin Salman kidnaps Lebanon and asks the Gulf states to exert maximum political and commercial pressure: Saudi Arabia is losing in Marib and attacking in Beirut

Saturday, October 30, 2021 No comments

Media Review: Lebanon in the News

Just like on November 4, 2017, the day Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman decided to kidnap the Prime Minister of Lebanon, Saad Hariri, and force him to resign. Yesterday, Bin Salman decided to kidnap the entire Lebanese government, and force it to kneel before him, or to leave, under the pretext of statements made by Minister of Information George Qardahi, before his appointment as a minister, in which he criticized the aggression on Yemen. And as 4 years ago, so was last night. As soon as the Saudi regime announced the withdrawal of its ambassador from Beirut, the expulsion of the Lebanese ambassador in Riyadh, and the cessation of imports from Lebanon, the same media outlets, and the politicians themselves, went out to cover the madness of Ibn Salman and his decision to pressure Lebanon and push it into submission. For example, the head of the Lebanese Forces party, Samir Geagea - who was the only politician whom the Saudi ambassador, Walid al-Bukhari, visited publicly before announcing his withdrawal from Beirut - delivered a clear threat to the Lebanese: “There is a very big rolling crisis between the Gulf states and the Lebanese government. The current government majority is called upon to take a quick, decisive and clear decision to spare the Lebanese people more tragedies.” Meanwhile, former MP Walid Jumblatt was clearer than Geagea, in terms of his demand for the dismissal of "this minister who will destroy our relations with the Gulf."

Sources linked to the Saudi regime confirmed that Riyadh wants to overthrow the government of Najib Mikati, so either the latter and his government submit, with what this means by opening the door for concessions that will not stop at an end, or he resigns. The new Saudi position seems to have taken statements made by Minister Qardahi, before the formation of the government, as a pretext to attack Lebanon, due to the failure of Ibn Salman's forces in Yemen, specifically in the battle of Marib. In its statement in which it announced the withdrawal of its ambassador from Beirut and the expulsion of the Lebanese ambassador in Riyadh, the Saudi government repeated lies about Lebanon's lack of cooperation with it in the field of drug control, despite the fact that the majority of drug seizures in Saudi ports are based on information from the Lebanese security services. But the most important thing in the statement is the repetition of talk about Hezbollah and its “control” of Lebanon, and “providing support and training for the terrorist Houthi militia.”

Saudi Arabia's decision to escalate in Lebanon will be joined by other Gulf states, the first of which was, as usual, Bahrain, which at night copied Riyadh's measures (expulsion of the Lebanese ambassador). While it was reported that Qatar and Oman would not trade with Saudi Arabia, Riyadh decided to conduct a series of contacts with other Arab countries in an attempt to take a decision in the Arab League against Lebanon!

What happened remains within the framework of a new adventure for bin Salman, unless the United States and France decide to adopt it. In that case, Lebanon will face a major decision to drag it into total chaos, which supports the argument of those convinced of it, the US sanctions decision issued the day before yesterday against Representative Jamil Al-Sayed and businessmen Jihad Al-Arab and Danny Khoury. However, the information that was available yesterday indicated that American and French contacts with Mikati, urging him not to resign, with “the need to address the emerging problem with Saudi Arabia.”

Mikati rushed to contact the President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun. After a statement expressing his regret for the Saudi decision, he called Minister Qardahi and "asked him to assess the national interest and take the appropriate decision to reform Lebanon's Arab relations," according to a statement issued by the prime minister's office. This statement means an encouragement from Mikati to Qardahi to resign. Prior to that, Hezbollah had informed the Prime Minister that any attempt to dismiss the Minister of Information in the Council of Ministers (this decision requires two-thirds of the members of the government) would mean the resignation of the party's ministers. Attempts were made to put pressure on former MP Suleiman Franjieh, as he named Qardahi to the ministry, but the Marada leader refused to pressure the minister and push him to resign. Pending what the Minister of Information will decide, the Prime Minister decided not to cut short his visit to Scotland, where he is participating in the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

Sources in contact with the Saudi authorities said that Riyadh has informed its allies in Lebanon since the day before yesterday that it is in the process of escalating steps against Lebanon. In parallel, the Saudis expressed their “disappointment” that the reactions to Qardahi’s words were limited to statements of denunciation, amid expectations that ministers affiliated with the Future Movement and the Socialist Party would resign from the government, as well as popular movements in a number of Lebanese regions denouncing what Qardahi had made. .

The sources pointed out that Saudi Arabia, which heard requests slowly from Qatar and Kuwait, hastened to take its steps and is awaiting similar measures soon from others, especially the United Arab Emirates, which had not announced any action.

In addition to these steps, Saudi Arabia appeared to be acting very angry, and the callers said that Saudi diplomacy was talking about a failure in the Iranian-Saudi negotiations on Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon. Riyadh has sought with Damascus, through the Emirati side, to play a role in the Yemen file and in the Lebanon file as well, in return for Riyadh helping to return Syria to the Arab League and communicating with the Europeans and Americans to open the door for aid in the reconstruction process.

As for the position of the allies in Lebanon, the Saudi side deliberately limited the ambassador’s visits to Geagea without other prominent leaders, and that he clearly expressed the continuation of the estrangement with Prime Minister Saad Hariri and the Future Movement, and that Riyadh will not ask the latter for any step “and he knows what must be done.” doing it".

Bin Salman kidnaps Lebanon and asks the Gulf states to exert maximum political and commercial pressure: Saudi Arabia is losing in Marib and attacking in Beirut

______________

Source: «الأخبار»

Friday, October 29, 2021

To limit Iran's influence in Syria, US should lift sanctions on Syria, Putin tells Bennett

Friday, October 29, 2021 No comments

Reporting by Axios suggested that Russia's Putin sought Israel's help in easing U.S. sanctions on Syria. Here is our summary of the hypothetical exchange presumed to have happened between the two:

Bennett: I want Iran to have less influence in Syria.
Putin: who do you think should help Syria recover from the 10 year war so that it would not seek help from Iran for it?
Bennett: Russia and Russian companies. You are already there.
Putin: Russian government is there. But Russian companies are afraid to go there because of US sanctions.
Bennett: Why aren't Iranian government and Iranian companies afraid to do business in Syria?
Putin: Because they are already under US sanctions. What are they going to be afraid of? Maximum-maximum pressure?
Bennett: Oh, S&^%! That sucks! What can be done then?
Putin: Ask your friends in the US to lift the sanctions on Syria so that Russian, and possibly Western companies, can take away business from the Iranians, which will diminish their influence, which you are seeking.
Bennett: I guess we will have to. We will also call on our Gulf allies, especially those who signed on the Abraham Accord, to go back to doing business in Syria then.