Taliban Supreme Leader orders ban on poppy cultivation in Afghanistan

The Taliban's Supreme Leader has ordered a ban on poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, warning that the government would crack down on farmers planting the crop. 

Afghanistan is the world's biggest producer of poppy, the source of sap that is refined into heroin, and in recent years its production and exports have only boomed.

"All Afghans are informed that from now on cultivation of poppy has been strictly prohibited across the country," said a decree issued by Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, AFP reported.

The decree was read out by government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid at a gathering of reporters, foreign diplomats and Taliban officials.

"If anyone violates the decree the crop will be destroyed immediately and the violator will be treated according to the Shariah law," it added.

Iran has been the main victim of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan. It has lost about 4,000 security forces in the battle against drug traffickers over the past four decades. Traffickers mainly use the Iranian soil as a transit route to smuggle opium and heroin to Europe.    

It is not the first time the fundamentalist group has vowed to outlaw the trade. Production was banned in 2000, just before the group was overthrown by US-led forces in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

During their 20-year insurgency against foreign forces, the Taliban heavily taxed farmers cultivating the crop in areas under their control.

It became a key resource for the group to generate funds.

The United States and NATO forces tried to curb poppy cultivation during their two decades in Afghanistan by paying farmers to grow alternative crops such as wheat or saffron.

But their attempts were thwarted by the Taliban who controlled the main poppy-growing regions and derived hundreds of millions of dollars from the trade, experts say.

Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi rejected claims the Taliban helped fuel poppy cultivation during their insurgency.

"How come it was exported all over the world when they (US-led forces) had full control over Afghanistan," Hanafi said Sunday.

Afghan media reports say production has increased in two southern provinces, Kandahar and Helmand, since the Taliban seized power in August 2021, although data is not available.

Afghanistan has a near monopoly on opium and heroin, accounting for 80 to 90 percent of global output, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The amount of land planted with poppies hit a record high in 2017 and has averaged around 250,000 hectares in recent years, roughly four times the level of the mid-1990s, UN figures show.

 

US Senate votes 100-0 to limit trade with Russia

The US Senate on Thursday passed legislation to end normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus, capping off weeks of negotiations that had stalled the bill. 

Senators voted 100-0 on the legislation, which ends permanent, normal trade relations with the two countries. The bill also reauthorizes Magnitsky Act sanctions that target human rights violations and corruption with penalties like visa bans or asset freezes.

The Senate is also expected to pass a separate bill to codify the Biden administration’s ban on Russian oil imports on Thursday. The two bills have been effectively linked together in the Senate and were part of a deal announced on Wednesday night.

“No nation whose military is committing war crimes deserves free-trade status with the United States. No vile thug like Putin deserves to stand as an equal with the leaders of the free world,” Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer said ahead of the votes.

Senators were under pressure to reach an agreement before they leave town on Thursday for a two-week break and as Russia continues its weeks-long bloody invasion of Ukraine. That pressure only grew this week after photos emerged over the weekend of destruction in Bucha, a town northwest of Ukraine’s capital, including images of people lying dead in the streets and in mass graves, triggering widespread condemnation.

Biden said that he believed Russia had committed war crimes, while Schumer went further, saying it was “genocide, and Mr. Putin is guilty of it.”

The Senate’s vote is the first Ukraine-related bill it has had a roll call vote on since it passed billions in Ukraine aid as part of a sweeping government funding bill last month.

The trade bill passed the House on March 17, while the bill to codify the Biden administration’s oil ban passed on March 09, 2022.

But they faced headwinds in the Senate, as negotiators faced several potential sticking points. The most high-profile hurdle was a days-long negotiation with Senator Rand Paul over reauthorizing the Magnitsky Act sanctions, which is riding on the trade bill. The House bill changed the Magnitsky Act language from targeting “gross” human rights violations to targeting “serious” human rights violations, codifying a Trump-era executive order.

Negotiators had appeared to cut a deal with Paul last week but indicated as recently as Tuesday that they were still haggling over the language. In the end, the Senate deal sticks with the original Magnitsky Act language currently in law, instead of updating it.

As part of a deal to get votes on the Russia package today, the Senate also passed bipartisan legislation on Wednesday night to establish a lend-lease program for Ukraine, making it easier to send military aid to the country.

“As the world bears witness to the most serious security threat to Europe and our global stability since World War II, this legislation to speed up the process of moving military equipment to the frontlines couldn’t be more urgent,” Senator Jeanne Shaheen said about the bill.

“I appreciate the bipartisan support to pass our legislation in the Senate and urge the House to swiftly follow suit. As this crisis rapidly escalates and Putin bears down on Ukraine, every minute counts,” she added. 

 

Can Naftali Bennett survive as Prime Minister of Israel?

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett stated that MK Idit Silman had been threatened by supporters of opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu and Religious Zionist head Betzalel Smotrich until she broke and left the coalition on Wednesday.

"Idit was persecuted for months, verbally abused by supporters of Bibi and Smotrich at the most horrific level," said Bennett on Wednesday evening. "She described to me the threats against her husband Shmulik's workplace and her children in Bnei Akiva. She broke in the end."

Bennett stressed that the main thing we need to deal with at the moment is stabilizing the faction and the coalition. He added that all the leaders in the coalition are interested in continuing the current government.

With the resignation of MK Idit Silman from the coalition, here are four possible scenarios of what will come next:

1. Domino effect

Another member of the Knesset quits the coalition and helps the opposition – led by Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu – to pass a bill dispersing the Knesset and taking Israel to a new election.

In this event, immediately after the dispersion of the Knesset, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid would become prime minister until the formation of a new government.

For Silman, the ideal situation would be for another member of Yamina to break away from the party so that she can then – together with earlier Yamina rebel MK Amichai Chikli – form a new faction that would be able to merge with an existing party and run in a new election.

2. Gantz jumps ship

Before the Knesset dissolves, Blue and White Chairman Benny Gantz decides to join the opposition and become Israel’s prime minister. This scenario is possible for a few reasons. The first is that Gantz, who currently serves as Defense Minister, has been unhappy with the current government since its inception. He was particularly bothered by Bennett – with six seats and now five – becoming Prime Minister while he, Gantz, had eight seats.

In addition, Gantz might prefer this option over the dispersion of the Knesset, which would see Lapid become Prime Minister. Remember that the two politicians split – with Lapid’s Yesh Atid Party leaving the Blue and White alliance – in 2020 when Gantz decided to join Netanyahu’s last government, which ultimately fell apart.

While Gantz has said that he learned the lesson from sitting with Netanyahu and that he would not make the same mistake again, he could argue that by joining Netanyahu he would not only be serving as Prime Minister but would also be preventing another election and further political instability.

3. A comeback for Netanyahu

Netanyahu somehow manages to form a government in the current Knesset or steps aside as Chairman of the Likud – highly unlikely – and allows a different Likud MK to do so. It is more likely that he would prefer crowning Gantz than someone from his own party, something he could have done before Bennett became prime minister last June.

4. Limping to the finish line

The government – now a lame duck and unable to pass legislation – manages to survive until the beginning of 2023, when it needs to pass a new budget. Although, it would not be able to pass any laws, this might be the best scenario right now for Bennett.

 

United States solicits Bangladesh support

Joe Biden, President of United States has expressed optimism that Dhaka-Washington partnership would flourish further in the next 50 years and beyond.

In a letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Biden said both Bangladeshis and Americans share the ideals of democracy, equality, and respect for human rights. Those are the foundation for healthy, secure, and prosperous societies, he added.

“I am confident our partnership will continue to flourish for the next 50 years and beyond,” he said in the letter marking the 50-year milestone in the bilateral relationship between the United States and Bangladesh.

The US president said that the drive, resourcefulness, and innovation of Bangladeshis – rebuilding after the 1971 war and now forging a path of economic growth and development – serve as a model for rest of the world.

“We are proud of our partnership on development, economic growth and counterterrorism,” Biden said, adding that the two countries work together to address climate crisis, help the Rohingya survivors of genocide and support UN peace keeping worldwide.

He mentioned the two nations are connected through familial, academic and commercial ties since 1958, when Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman participated in a 30-day exchange program in the United States.

“Our defense cooperation is stronger than ever,” the US president said adding that the Bangladesh Coast Guard and Navy are invaluable partners in ensuring a free and open Indo-Pacific region, contributing to the regional effort to end and the trafficking of people and illicit drugs.

Biden said the US and Bangladesh together met the challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic while Washington has donated more than 61 million vaccine doses and provided over US$131 million in assistance to Dhaka.

 

China and Russia to lead a new economic bloc

The news that Sinopec, Chinese state-run oil refiner, has canceled plans for US$500 million investment in Russia’s energy sector does not portend a general decoupling of the economies of China and Russia.

On the contrary, it signifies a temporary halt to an economic partnership that is likely to grow in size and complexity as world powers regroup into new, rival blocs in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the massive sanctions that aligned nations have levied on the aggressor.

That’s according to Ross Kennedy, a senior fellow at the Securities Studies Group and founder of Fortis Analysis, who spoke to EpochTV’s “China Insider” program on April 02, 2022.

A few weeks prior to Russia’s invasion, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “no limits” partnership, a relationship that has not shown signs of diminishing even as Moscow becomes a pariah on the world stage over its ongoing assault on Ukraine. But Beijing has not yet rushed in to provide significant economic help to Moscow, cautious about being impacted by Western sanctions in the process, according to Kennedy, a logistics and supply chain expert.

“Beijing, despite declaring pretty forcefully and openly that there are no limits on ties between Moscow and Beijing, still also has to take into consideration what the impact of sanctions may be. And right now there’s a bit of a gray area concerning how capital flow is going to work between the two countries, particularly on the investment side,” Kennedy said.

Calling China a “consumption powerhouse” that continues to need enormous amounts of energy and raw materials, Kennedy said that the availability and ease of goods produced in the Black Sea region and the eastern part of Russia still holds significant appeal for Beijing. Though China’s rulers are wary for the moment about what contravening the sanctions on Russia might mean for China’s economy. Hence Kennedy is skeptical about the long-term significance of Sinopec’s decision.

“I don’t think this is an indicator that China is cooling its support of Russia. I don’t think that it is really reflective of anything other than Sinopec, and other companies, being instructed by Beijing to just be a little bit more cautious right now and make sure that state-owned enterprises don’t have exposure to Western sanctions,” he said.

Despite the Sinopec decision, trade is still ongoing at a high volume between the two powers in such product groups as animal feed, vitamins and trace minerals, amino acids, building and construction materials, and other longstanding components of the Russia-China trade relationship, Kennedy said.

Rather than a decoupling, Kennedy sees the likelihood of Chinese state-owned enterprises ramping up their purchases of energy products and grain from Russia. In Kennedy’s analysis, China, India, and possibly other powers will take advantage of the lower prices of energy products available to be shipped by tanker from Russia as the latter power increasingly finds itself shut off from Western markets. A marked increase in non-dollar- and non-Euro-denominated transactions is highly likely, he added.

“It’s pretty clear that Moscow and Beijing and even some of the other countries of the world, like India and Iran, are working and collaborating pretty closely on having the ability to settle transactions among themselves,” Kennedy said.

The increasing reliance on transactions that do not involve Western currencies or banking systems takes place under the rubric of BRICS, the group of powers composed of Russia, China, India, Brazil, and South Africa. Kennedy sees BRICS as the nexus of this growing consolidation and formation of a bloc rivaling Western democracies.

Besides the devastation of Ukraine and the imposition of massive sanctions, Russia’s invasion of her neighbor has helped start to usher in a new geopolitical landscape. The new bloc will not emerge overnight. Rather, it is in nascent form, Kennedy said.

“We are seeing the emergence of Russia-China-led sphere of economic and geopolitical cooperation that will stand in contrast to what is more of an Anglosphere, or a transatlantic type of alliance among Canada, the US, and our NATO partners,” Kennedy said.

“I think as we look back in three years, five years, ten years, we’re going to see that it’s really two fully formed economic blocs that have some level of cooperation between them where necessary,” he continued.

To the extent that trade and cooperation occur between the rival blocs, it will depend on facilitators that have a presence in both blocs, such as India, Saudi Arabia, and possibly the United Arab Emirates, Kennedy predicted.

He called the new geopolitical configuration unprecedented since the days of the Cold War, when the world broke down largely of the Soviet Union, Western powers led by the United States, and a number of developing countries loyal to one or the other.

 

Russia condemns United States attempt to punish Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan

Wading into the political battle raging in Islamabad over the alleged threat made against Imran Khan’s government by an American official, Moscow on Tuesday accused the United States of committing “another attempt of shameless interference” in the internal affairs of Pakistan to punish a “disobedient” Imran Khan for not supporting the US position on Ukraine, reported DAWN, Pakistan’s leading English Newspaper.

But rejecting the Russian allegation of interference in Pakistan’s domestic politics, the US State Department said on Tuesday that it “does not support one political party over another”.

In a statement issued in Moscow, spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, noted that President Arif Alvi had dissolved the National Assembly on April 03, 2022 on Imran Khan’s advice, which was based on a claim that the US orchestrated a plan to topple his government.

“Immediately after the announcement of the working visit of Imran Khan to Moscow on February 23-24 this year, the United States and its Western associates began to exert rude pressure on the prime minister, demanding an ultimatum to cancel the trip,” Ms Zakharova said.

“When he nevertheless came to us, (US diplomat Donald Lu) called the Pakistani ambassador in Washington and demanded that the visit be immediately interrupted, which was also rejected,” she stated.

“According to the Pakistani media, on March 07 this year, in a conversation with Pakistani Ambassador Asad Majid, a high-ranking American official (presumably Donald Lu) sharply condemned the balanced reaction of the Pakistani leadership to the events in Ukraine and made it clear that partnerships with the United States are possible only if Imran Khan is removed from power,” the spokesperson added.

The Russian official claimed that further development of the situation left no doubt that the US decided to punish the ‘disobedient’ Imran Khan, noting how lawmakers from within the PTI switched sides to the opposition while the no-confidence vote was submitted to parliament.

“This is another attempt of shameless US interference in the internal affairs of an independent state for its own selfish purposes. The above facts eloquently testify to this,” she said.

“The Pakistan Prime Minister himself has repeatedly stated that the conspiracy against him was inspired and financed from abroad. We hope that Pakistani voters will be informed about these circumstances when they come to the elections, which should be held within 90 days after the dissolution of the National Assembly.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement came a couple of days after Imran Khan named US Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asia Donald Lu as the official who made threatening remarks about his regime in a letter, which the premier had brandished during a public rally in Islamabad last month.

Last month, the National Security Committee, which includes all services chiefs, had decided to issue a “strong demarche” over the letter, terming it “blatant interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan”.

The Prime Minister has alleged that the no-confidence motion against him is part of the “foreign conspiracy” to oust him from power.

When Dawn approached the US State Department for comment on the Russian statement, one of their spokespersons said that “there’s no truth to these allegations”.

The US official also explained the US position on the current political turmoil in Pakistan, pointing out that it had no favourites in this dispute.

The official said Washington “supports the peaceful upholding of constitutional and democratic principles”, indicating that the US does not want tensions between the ruling and opposition parties to lead to violence and it would support any solution that’s based on the Pakistani Constitution.

Further underlining Washington’s neutrality on this issue, the spokesperson said, “We do not support one political party over another. We support principles of rule of law and equal justice under law.”

This statement covers more ground than previous US statements on the dispute, which did not go beyond denying “allegations” of US involvement. Apparently, the detailed Russian statement, which included serious allegations against the United States, necessitated the added detail.

Saudi Arabia chooses Putin over Biden on Ukraine to keep oil Prices high

I have selected an article by David Ottaway dated March 02, 2022 and want to share it with readers of my blogs.  This may help them understand that the United States and Saudi Arabia don’t share ‘same oil policy’. 

In my opinion only United States can be held responsible for the widening breach between the two countries. 

Saudi Arabia has decided to side with Russia and spurn cries of United States for help as the Ukraine crisis sends the price of oil sky high even though it is the only country with sufficient spare oil production to stop the spiraling to its highest level in eight years. 

Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the United States are the world’s top three oil exporters, supplying collectively 30% of world demand. But Saudi Arabia is the only one with the capacity to increase production quickly, by as much as two million barrels per day, more or less immediately.

The Saudi government has come under increasing pressure from US President Joe Biden to use its leverage to lower prices. But the Saudi de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), has just re- committed to working with Russia to keep them high. Prices have reached over US$100/barrel; up dramatically from the onset of the coronavirus pandemic two years ago, when prices at one point in April 2020 fell below zero.

The crown prince clearly feels he owes nothing personally to President Biden, who has refused to talk to him due to their falling out over the former’s involvement in the assassination of the prominent Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Saudi Arabia has shown less and less interest in cooperating with the United States on oil matters as it has become a rival oil exporter to the Saudi kingdom.   The US companies presently export around three million barrels a day as compared to Saudi Arabia’s 6.8 million barrels. But they currently produce roughly a million barrels more because the Saudis deliberately limit their output to keep upward pressure on prices.

On the other hand, oil has brought MBS and Russian President Vladimir Putin closer than ever before – at least on oil matters. Saudi Arabia and Russia each lead a group of oil producers that have figured out how to work together to keep prices high.  The former heads the 13-Member Organization of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the latter a grouping of ten non-OPEC producers.  Together, they are referred to as OPEC+ Plus.

The Saudi prince’s siding with Putin over Biden has also been reflected in Saudi silence on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This may be partly explained by Saudi Arabia’s own invasion of neighboring Yemen. Both leaders have said their action was motivated by historic ties and national security concerns.

At an emergency meeting Wednesday, the 23 producers voted to stick to their plan to increase their collective production by only 400,000 more barrels a day each month. By this they signaled no interest in seeing prices fall or in coming to the rescue of Western European nations facing a drop in their Russian oil imports, which account for about 30% of their total consumption.    

When it comes to oil, US-Saudi relations have turned from being more or less cooperative to outright antagonistic as the US companies have developed new methods of extracting oil and gas from shale deposits known as fracking. 

This has seen US crude oil production shoot up from 5.2 million barrels a day in 2005 to more than 12 million barrels just before the pandemic cratered the world economy in early 2020. 

This happened just as Saudi Arabia and Russia were in a standoff over increasing production. In a power play, the Saudis decided in March of that year to swamp the market with more oil to force its will on Russia, increasing their production from 9.7 million barrels a day to 12.3 million.

At the same time, they decided to try to put those US companies involved in fracking out of business.  In March 2020, they hired twenty supertankers carrying 40 million barrels of oil to the United States where it was dumped on an already saturated market. Its effect was dramatic.

On April 20, 2020 the price for a barrel of oil on the New York Mercantile Exchange actually fell to negative US$37.63, a theretofore unheard of low. The oil dump plus the pandemic-induced recession achieved the Saudi objective, scores of small fracking companies went out of business and US production dropped by more than two million barrels a day.

Biden even made a rare phone call to King Salman in early February to plead his case for more Saudi oil.

Ever since, the Saudi crown prince and his oil minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, who is his half-brother, have chosen to work with Russia and OPEC+ Plus over heeding any pleas for help from the White House. Even before the Ukraine crisis, Biden was pressing Saudi Arabia to open up its oil spigot to help relieve the ever-rising price of gasoline in the United States – one of the main causes of high inflation helping to undermine his standing in the polls. Biden even made a rare phone call to King Salman in early February to plead his case for more Saudi oil. According to the White House account of their conversation, the two leaders committed to ensuring the stability of global energy supplies.

A week later, the Saudi Oil Minister made clear his country was sticking to the agreement first worked out in July 2021 among the 23 members of OPEC+ to slowly only restore their monthly collective production at the rate of 400,000 more barrels a day. This agreement has been renewed again and again ever since.

At its meeting which lasted just 15 minutes, OPEC Plus issued a statement washing its hands of any responsibility for spiraling oil prices.  It declared the oil market well-balanced and blamed the volatility in prices on current geopolitical developments. There was no mention of Ukraine.