Anti Modi demonstrations erupt in Bangladesh

Two-day tour of Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi to Bangladesh starts on Friday. Earlier, leaders from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives have attended the festivities, which started on 17th March.

Modi’s visit is part of 10-day celebrations of the Golden Jubilee of Bangladesh independence. This also marks Birth Centenary of the nation's founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, father of current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

During his visit, Modi is scheduled to visit two temples in southern rural districts, including the birthplace of a top Hindu reformer who has large number of followers in the Indian West Bengal and Bangladesh.

To display their displeasure some factions staged anti-Modi demonstration in Dhaka. The protesters accused Modi of stoking religious tensions and inciting anti-Muslim violence in the Indian state of Gujarat in 2002, which left about 1,000 people dead. Modi was Gujarat's chief minister at the time of the deadly religious riots.

On Thursday, student organizations under the banner of ‘Progressive Student Alliance’ were demonstrating against Modi’s visit.They were allegedly attacked by Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) activists at Dhaka University campus.

 “Some 40 protesters were injured, including 18 hospitalized with injuries from police beatings and rubber bullets,” Bin Yamin Molla, a senior official of the Student Rights Council, which organized the protest, told AFP.

Witnesses said several hundreds of BCL men with local weapons were seen at the Teachers Students Centre (TSC).

Earlier in the day, Jubo Odhikar Parishad activists clashed with police in the city’s Motijheel area while protesting against the Indian prime minister’s visit.

The Parishad, youth front of former vice president of Dhaka University Central Students’ Union (DUCSU) Nurul Haque Nur’s organization, blocked the roads in the Motijheel area in the afternoon.

The clashes started when the law enforcing agencies tried to stop the demonstrators.

Suez Canal may remain closed for days and weeks

The Suez Canal Authority (SCA), which had allowed some vessels to enter the canal in the hope the blockage could be cleared, said it had temporarily suspended all traffic on Thursday.

“We can’t exclude it might take weeks, depending on the situation,” Peter Berdowski, CEO of Dutch company Boskalis which is trying to free the ship, told the Dutch television program “Nieuwsuur”.

A total of 156 large container ships, tankers carrying oil and gas, and bulk vessels hauling grain have backed up at either end of the canal, Egypt’s Leith Agencies said, creating one of the worst shipping jams seen for years.

“It is like an enormous beached whale. It’s an enormous weight on the sand. We might have to work with a combination of reducing the weight by removing containers, oil and water from the ship, tug boats and dredging of sand.”

Shipping experts say that if the blockage is not cleared in the coming days, some shipping may re-route around Africa, which would add roughly a week to the journey.

“Every port in Western Europe is going to feel this,” Leon Willems, a spokesman for Rotterdam Port, Europe’s largest, said. “We hope for both companies and consumers that it will be resolved soon. When these ships do arrive in Europe, there will inevitably be longer waiting times.”

Consultancy Wood Mackenzie said the biggest impact was on container shipping, but there were also a total of 16 laden crude and product oil tankers due to sail through the canal and now delayed.

The tankers were carrying 870,000 tons of crude and 670,000 tons of clean oil products such as gasoline, naphtha and diesel, it said.

According to oil analytics firm Vortexa, Russia and Saudi Arabia are the top two exporters of oil through the canal, while India and China are the main importers.

Joanna Konings, senior economist, International Trade Analysis at Dutch bank ING, said the impact on the world economy would be limited if it did not drag on since the container shipping industry was used to days of delays.

But Germany’s BDI industry association was concerned. Deputy Managing Director Holger Loesch said earlier delays were already impacting production, with industries depending on raw materials or construction supply deliveries particularly affected.

About 16% of Germany’s chemicals imports arrive by ship via the Suez Canal and the chief economist for the association of German chemicals and pharmaceuticals producers VCI, Henrik Meincke, said they would be affected with every day of blockage.

Bernhard Schulte Ship Management (BSM), the technical manager of Ever Given, said dredgers were working to clear sand and mud from around the blocked vessel while tugboats in conjunction with Ever Given’s winches work to shift it.

Japanese ship owner Shoei Kisen apologized for the incident and said work on freeing the ship, which was heading to Europe from China, “has been extremely difficult” and it was not clear when the vessel would float again.

The owner and insurers face claims totaling millions of dollars even if the ship is refloated quickly, industry sources said on Wednesday. Shoei Kisen said the hull insurer of the group is MS&AD Insurance Group while the liability insurer is UK P&I Club.

Is Israel heading towards fifth election?

In Israeli politics, there is no formal draft for future stars, but there are definitely parties that look ahead rather than at the present. That has never been truer than with Tuesday election. Strategists in parties across the political spectrum admit behind the scenes that with all due respect to the current race, they are actually focusing on yet another election.

Initial exit polls on Tuesday night indicated that Netanyahu’s bloc had won 61 seats together with Naftali Bennett’s Yamina Party, and thus would be able to form a government, but the final results could end up being different.

It does not matter if the fifth election will take place in October 2021 or in 2025. What does matter to the parties is that the three-decade political career of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will eventually end and that will change everything.

They start with Bennett. While it initially looked like he would remain independent in the race, he instead chose to be careful not to leave the Right, even though it could have helped him win more seats in this election. 

Sources close to Bennett said he had in mind building himself up for the next election in the post-Netanyahu era. For that, he could not be the one who prevents the formation of a right-wing government.

The Center-Left similarly looked to the future. Rather than wasting a potentially stronger candidate in a potentially unwinnable fight against Netanyahu, leading figures in the camp said the time had come to run Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid and finish him off with a loss.

Labor leader Merav Michaeli has spoken openly about using this election to build her up and rebuild Labor, in order to be ready for the next one.

The best example was the ultimate potential game-changer for this election, Gadi Eizenkot. He saw what Netanyahu did to his fellow former IDF chief of staff, Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, and preferred to sit this race out and wait for post-Netanyahu era.

The Likud’s future leadership candidates, like Nir Barkat for instance, have also purposely been keeping a low profile.

Watching New Hope leader Gideon Sa’ar collapse from 21 seats when the campaign began to five or six after challenging Netanyahu’s political powerhouse in this election, proved parties taking this election not too seriously were better off.

A stuck container ship brings maritime traffic to grinding halt in Suez Canal

A stuck container ship brings maritime traffic to grinding halt in Suez Canal A container ship lodged itself in the middle of the Suez Canal on Tuesday, forcing maritime traffic to grinding halt in one of the world’s busiest waterways.

The Panama-flagged container ship en route from China to the Netherlands has been stuck in the Egyptian canal, while traveling north from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.

Several tug boats have crowded around the ship for hours.

The ship blocked the Suez Canal in both directions, apparently causing other ships to wait for the Ever Given to move before continuing their passage.

The Egyptian government’s canal authority, and Taiwan-based ship operator Evergreen Marine, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Suez Canal is one of the busiest canals in the world, serving as a key link between Europe and Asia for container ships, oil tankers and other vessels. Millions of tons of cargo pass through it every day. The Egyptian government expanded the 150-year-old canal in 2015, in a bid to attract even more traffic and send more fees from shipping companies into government coffers.

Why Joe Biden is following collision policy?

There are ample evidences that the foreign policy of United States under Joe Biden is not any different from that of Donald Trump. These include maximum pressure campaign against Iran, sanctions on Venezuela, bombing of Syria, no change on Yemen and the list can continue. From the outside world the behavior and tough talk of US officials can be termed juvenile. It demonstrates lack of knowledge, wisdom and strategy.

The United States will take an uncompromising stance in talks with China in Alaska, officials said at the first face-to-face meetings between senior officials from the two rivals, but Beijing called for a reset to ties. Then, after days of viciousness against China, it finally dawned on Blinken that he needs China's help. Why, should China be kind to United States?

The same aggressive behavior is also evident towards Russia. Baseless accusations of Russian election interferences are followed with more sanctions and threats topped off with Biden calling Russia's President Putin a 'killer'. Why Biden can’t be called a killer, he ordered bombing at Syria.

Last week the French forces, issued an open letter to NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg in which it accused him of having acting solely in the interest of the US during the development of his NATO 2030 plan. The details show how NATO and the US have caused the bad relations with Russia.

It says the United States is using a fictional 'Russian threat' to pressure NATO countries into morphing into a global force, under its command and independent of the United Nations, to then use it against China. The real threat to Europe emerges from the US interferences in the Middle East and North Africa. The US led NATO is thereby becoming a danger for Europe.

The accusations France against the US go beyond anything one might hear from Moscow or Beijing. The next 'allied' nation that will have sound reason to turn hostile towards the US might well be Germany.

The Biden administration stepped up its rhetoric against a gas pipeline between Russia and Germany, calling on all those involved in the project to ‘immediately abandon’ their work.

“The Department reiterates its warning that any entity involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline risks US sanctions and should immediately abandon work on the pipeline,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

Nord Stream 2 is of vital importance to Germany's energy security. The German public was rather hostile to President Trump and Biden's victory was seen with relief, but when it sees how Biden pursues the same policies, and with a similar tone, it will turn on him. A more general 'anti-Americanism' would then arise.

The uncompromising and ever aggressive behavior the United States shows towards competitors as well as friends will not strengthen its position in the world. These rushed attempts to prevent the ending of its unipolar moment will only accelerate the move towards a new multilateral global system.

Iran demands immediate withdrawal of occupying US forces from Syria

Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Iran’s permanent Ambassador to the United Nations has demanded the United States to withdraw all of its occupying forces from Syria. 

Majid Takht-Ravanchi made this demand on Monday while addressing the United Nations Security Council. He emphasized that the sole solution to the crisis in Syria would be implementation of peace, confirming to international laws.

The Iranian Ambassador underlined that all foreign forces that are present in Syria without the Damascus government’s approval, particularly the American troops occupying parts of Syria, must leave the country as soon as possible.

“The Syrian people do not accept continued occupation of their soil or violation of their country’s sovereignty and the international community should not concede to it either, because it contravenes the most basic principles of international law,” he noted.

Takht-Ravanchi also strongly condemned frequent attacks by the US and Israel forces in Iraq and Syria, as these illegal measures only worsen the situation in an already tense region.

“The Syrian crisis has no military solution and the sole way to end it would be a peaceful one in total conformity to principles of international law and articles of the Charter of the United Nations,” he pointed out.

Takht-Ravanchi also called on the international community to put an end to Israel's military adventurism in the region.

Iran has long criticized presence of US military in Syria. In late February, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh condemned American attacks on areas east of Syria, saying the illegal bases run by American forces in the country are used to train terrorists for later use against the Syrian government.

“Illegal American bases on the Syrian soil are training terrorists and using them against the Damascus government,” Khatibzadeh said.

Speaking at a Security Council meeting on Syria in November, Takht-Ravanchi said the US is plundering the Syrian nation’s wealth and oil resources while supporting terrorist groups in the Arab country, calling for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal of American troops from the war-ravaged country.

Also in February, Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York condemned the brutal attacks of foreign-backed terrorists and illegal occupation as well as inhumane sanctions. 

Eshagh Al Habib, Deputy Permanent Representative of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations, told the UN Security Council on February 25 that “For ten years, the Syrian people have utterly suffered from the brutal attacks of foreign-backed terrorists and illegal occupation, and in recent years, from inhumane sanctions.”

He noted, “The international community has a responsibility to help the Syrian people and government to overcome this crisis and to ensure Syria’s unity, sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence. In this context, we call for the immediate withdrawal of all foreign forces that are present in Syria without the permission of its government. These and other aspects of the Syrian crisis have been extensively discussed in the Astana format meeting, held recently in Sochi, Russia, following which a joint statement was issued by Iran, Russia and Turkey. The three countries condemned the increasing terrorist activities in Syria and agreed to continue cooperation to ultimately eliminate Daesh, Al-Nusra Front and all other Security Council designated terrorist groups and their affiliates.”

Al Habib pointed out that these countries also expressed serious concern over the increased presence and terrorist activity of “Hayat Tahrir al- Sham” and other affiliated terrorist groups and the threat they pose to civilians inside and outside the de-escalation Idlib area.

The Iranian diplomat also took a jab at US sanctions on Syria, saying these sanctions will only prolong the crisis and inflict more pain on the Syrian people.

“The imposition of unilateral sanctions against Syria further exacerbates the situation and prolongs both the crisis and the sufferings of the people. Such sanctions are unlawful, inhumane and unjustifiable, and must therefore come to an immediate end,” he stressed. 

“Mounting political and economic pressures on Syria or making multiple preconditions for the peaceful settlement of the crisis has proven to be counterproductive. Reconstruction of the country and the return of refugees and displaced persons must go hand in hand with the political process. They are interlinked, mutually inclusive and mutually reinforcing,” Al Habib continued.

“Finally, Iran reiterates its commitment to political resolution of this crisis and will continue supporting the people and government of Syria to restore the unity and territorial integrity of their country,” he concluded.

Iran and Syria enjoy close relations. In Late February, Khatibzadeh traveled to Syria and held talks with Syrian officials and attended meetings of think tanks, media outlets and elites in the Arab country. The meetings were held in Damascus in line with Iran-Syria cooperation in public diplomacy, media and cultural arenas.

Israel Elections: President Rivlin to pick new coalition head with care

Learning from the past experiences, this time, President Reuven Rivlin intends to use all the time at his disposal to appoint a candidate to build a new governing coalition. It was told by President's Residence Director General, Harel Tuvi to The Jerusalem Post in an interview on Sunday. 

Tuesday's election results will be formally presented to Rivlin by the Head of the Central Elections Committee, Supreme Court Judge Uzi Vogelman on 31st March 2021, after counting around 600,000 double ballots of emissaries, soldiers, prisoners, those quarantined and sick from COVID-19 and those returning from abroad on Election Day and voting at Ben-Gurion International Airport. 

"No action will be taken until the results will be clear, official and final," Tuvi said.

Rivlin will then begin consultations with faction representatives to hear their recommendations about who should form the next government. 

The deadline for Rivlin to give his 28-day mandate to build a coalition is 7th April 2021. Sources close to him said that unlike after other elections when he expedited the process, this time, he will take his time to help facilitate it better. 

"After the first couple of elections, he didn't wait for the final results because the public interest was to end uncertainty as soon as possible," Tuvi said.

"This time, there are double envelopes and other complications from corona, so the president said he would not start the consultations until we really know the official results," he said.

"This time he will also encourage the parties to talk among themselves first and let the situation settle."

The first candidate who receives a mandate to form a government can ask for a two-week extension. If there is a second candidate, he received no more than four weeks.

Rivlin's term is set to end on 9th July 2021. It is possible a new president-elect could be chosen by the Knesset while a second candidate has the mandate. But Tuvi said Rivlin's decisions and timetable will not be impacted by the race for his successor.

Tuvi denied reports that Rivlin would not consider giving the mandate to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu due to Netanyahu's criminal indictments.  

"The president will be guided by the decision of the nation," Tuvi said.

"He has wide considerations and can choose among many options but he cannot go against a clear decision by the nation."