Israel not equipped to handle Iranian funded explosives

According to The Jerusalem Post, Israeli military commandos warned on Sunday morning that the IDF's armored vehicles are not equipped to deal with terror attacks carried out using improvised explosive devices (IED), which are thought to be funded and supplied to the West Bank by Iran.

Following recent use of IEDs in attacks, most notably in a blast near Joseph's Tomb where an IDF officer and three soldiers were wounded last week, the commandos warned that it is clear to all of us where this is going. "It will only get worse."

The commandos lamented the lack of armored vehicles available for operations in the West Bank. "Everybody has seen the explosive terror labs uncovered in the Jenin operation.

"On one hand, we're talking about an increased amount of explosives, a situation which urges caution. On the other, there is an issue with the availability of armored jeeps, this is felt on our way to our targets and by the targets."

IDF denies reports

The IDF Spokesperson's Unit rejected the claims on Sunday, stressing that there is no shortage of armored vehicles.

"The vehicles are under continued maintenance in order to ensure their operational capacity remains at a high level."

The IDF also hit back at accusations that Israeli forces secured Joseph's Tomb by foot last week due to this perceived lack of vehicles, writing that the claim is incorrect.

The Israeli forces were wounded when an explosive device struck their armored vehicle.

Israelis seeking Portuguese nationality

According to The Jerusalem Post, more Israelis applied for Portuguese citizenship than any other foreign group over the past two years, even though few choose to actually live in the country.

The number of Israelis seeking a Portuguese passport through a 2015 law passed for the descendants of Jews expelled during the Inquisition reached 20,975 in 2022, according to statistics from the Portuguese Immigration and Border Service (SEF). 

That exceeded the 18,591 applicants from Brazil, whose population is over 20 times larger than Israel’s and has longstanding cultural ties to Portugal, including a shared language. 

Israelis were also the largest group in 2021 when 21,263 people applied.

The surge of Israeli applicants began after Portugal passed its “Law of Return” in 2015, allowing the descendants of Portuguese Sephardic Jews who were affected by the 16th century to apply for nationality. The Portuguese government has announced plans to end this policy in December 2023, declaring its purpose of reparation to be fulfilled.

The policy was plagued by scandal last year amid allegations of fraud and corruption in the Jewish Community of Porto, one of two Jewish authorities — alongside Lisbon’s community — that was certified to vet applications. In particular, the Porto community came under fire for approving the citizenship of Roman Abramovich, a Russian-Jewish billionaire who made his fortune in Russia’s energy sector and has been called a close ally of Vladimir Putin, although he has denied being part of the Russian president’s inner circle. Abramovich’s naturalization came to light shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine when it became apparent that he could live in Europe and challenge the European sanctions being imposed on Russian oligarchs. His case triggered a criminal probe into Porto’s vetting process, leading to the detainment of community rabbi Daniel Litvak and a bitter rift in Portugal’s Jewish communities.

Portuguese citizenship has a wide-ranging appeal for Israelis, including the freedom of movement that comes with a European Union passport. Portugal has lower taxes and a lower cost of living than Israel, although its income levels are also proportionately lower. Some Israelis are attracted to the more relaxed acceptance rates at public universities in Europe and lower attendance costs for EU nationals. 

There are likely also political motivations. Liberal-leaning Israelis — alarmed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government and its push to undercut the Israeli Supreme Court’s power and independence — have expressed growing interest in moving abroad. Others are galvanized by the fear and stress that come with living in a country continuously locked in deadly conflict with its neighbors.

Despite their spiking interest in nationality, most of the Israelis who applied have not moved to Portugal. While 60,000 Israelis had Portuguese citizenship in 2022, only 569 were residents, according to SEF data. In comparison, 239,744 Brazilians lived in Portugal last year.

Many citizens of Israel, a country full of citizens who have endured past migrations, may be driven by the desire for a “plan B.” Amikam, an Israeli healthcare professional who did not provide his last name, told The Portugal News that he applied for nationality in 2017 even though he has no plans of emigrating. 

“It’s always good to have a plan B in case things in Israel turn for the worst,” he said.

ASEAN losing its composure

Southeast Asia is at a dangerous crossroads. Once regarded as a haven of relative stability and economic progress, today the region is buffeted by escalating geopolitical struggle between the United States and China, state fragmentation in Myanmar and internal political conflicts that are exposing the limits of democratic reform and the dangers of populism.

These issues will be on full display at the annual leaders' summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations next week in Jakarta and may well intensify as the group's rotating chairmanship passes afterward from Indonesia to Laos, the bloc's smallest and poorest member.

Civil society and the international community have long looked to ASEAN, which has reliably preserved regional peace for decades, to deal with major challenges.

But the bloc is now deeply divided. On Myanmar, for example, mainland states have put a premium on state integrity and security over political change and reform while more democratic maritime states, led by Indonesia, regard military rule as intolerable.

In an alarming public display of regional dissonance, Thailand recently directly engaged with Myanmar's military junta without informing Indonesia. By playing on such divisions, the junta has avoided complete ostracization.

The region is also divided over the extent to which China poses a threat and whether it should be contained by the United States and its allies.

Laos, Thailand and Cambodia have close ties with Beijing, reflecting proximity or long-standing political alignment. Vietnam views China with deep historical enmity but maintains a dual-track relationship sustained by ties between the two nations' ruling communist parties. Even so, Hanoi has drawn closer to the US.

The Philippines has effectively checked out of ASEAN because officials in Manila believe the group has done nothing to defend the country's maritime claims against Chinese intrusions, noting its failure to support the 2016 arbitral ruling by a court in The Hague affirming Philippine sovereignty over contested areas.

"We might as well be allied with Taiwan, Japan and South Korea," said a former official after the recent confrontation between a Chinese coast guard ship and Philippine vessels attempting to resupply troops on Second Thomas Shoal in the disputed Spratly Islands. Manila has indeed moved closer to the US since Ferdinand Marcos Jr. became president last year.

Compounding such rifts over external issues is a distinct political divide. The rise of democratic reform movements in Indonesia, Malaysia and even Thailand over the last 30 years has led to more frequent changes in national leadership.

As a result, the personal relationships that held ASEAN nations together under more authoritarian regimes have frayed. Some democratic leaders have begun to wonder why they need to spend so much time with tedious ASEAN meetings when their domestic constituents are more interested in social equality and food security than strengthening regional identity.

All this has made Southeast Asia more fragile and isolated than it appears. Great power leaders who once routinely attended regional summits now often skip them. The US and China prefer bilateral engagements during which they can press for alignment. While he will skip this month's ASEAN summit, US President Joe Biden will visit Vietnam right afterward, reportedly to sign a bilateral strategic partnership agreement.

ASEAN has lost its much-touted centrality and is frankly on life support as an autonomous multilateral platform, reflecting to some degree the decline of multilateralism globally.

What can be done to revive effective multilateral cooperation and rescue the region from fracture by competing great powers and division by political dispute?

Civil society has traditionally helped in quiet ways to build and sustain the sinews of connectivity in the region. Networks of academics and think tanks helped promote connections and address sensitivities among governments and offered regional policy ideas.

Many of those veteran scholars are now retired or deceased. The younger generation has not filled the void, in part because the rivalry of the great powers has polarized much of their ranks.

A possible new approach would be to launch a recovery process to help reconnect the 10 ASEAN states. This would involve identifying common challenges rather than relying on outdated institutionalized processes or weak mechanisms to manage conflicts and protect human rights.

There is clearly a need for cross-bloc dialogue about what can be done. A bottom-up approach could offer innovative ideas and help ease the acrimony that has built up over the past few years. Post-pandemic, there is an urgent need for more contact and understanding in a region vastly more challenged than it was even five years ago.

The US and China are locked in an epic, dangerous rivalry that treats Southeast Asia as a battleground, so they will not be of help. But midsized powers and traditional partners such as Australia, the EU and UK could support regional cohesion if they spent less time pushing Western values and seeding animosity toward China, which even if justified, generates further division.

Southeast Asian governments and their leaders could help by speaking with one voice on critical issues and maintaining traditional balancing approaches to great power competition. As things stand today, there is a real chance that the Philippines and China will come to blows over the Second Thomas Shoal.

That would bring the United States and China dangerously close to war. Will ASEAN leaders be able to combine and collaborate to prevent any crisis from escalating? Right now, that looks doubtful.

 

Israeli attempt to normalize Libya ties backfires

Libyan Prime Minister has firmly rejected the prospect of normalizing relations with Israel, days after the news broke out of an apparent secret meeting between the Libyan foreign minister and her Israeli counterpart.

On August 27, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen publicly said he and Libya’s now sacked foreign minister had held a private meeting in the Italian capital Rome the previous week, the first-ever alleged encounter between a top Libyan diplomat and an Israeli regime official in history.

The next day, Libya’s Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah fired Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush, (who claimed it was not an official meeting but a swift coincidental interaction) and launched an investigation into the reported meeting. 

Mangoush’s whereabouts is now unknown following the uproar in Libya after news emerged of the exchange late last week.

Dbeibah also touched on the ongoing probe about the incident, saying, “Regardless of good or bad intentions, together we (the Libyan people) will learn the details of what happened in Rome through the ongoing investigation.”

Under a 1957 law in Libya, it is illegal to normalize ties with the occupation regime of Israel. Libya has long been hostile toward the Israeli regime and a staunch supporter of the Palestinians.

During a televised ministerial meeting of the Libyan Government of National Unity, Prime Minister Dbeibah said his government completely rejects any form of normalization with Israel.

"Before I assumed this mission, (I affirm) our categorical and complete rejection of any form of normalization, and our complete bias towards the Palestinian people and their just cause,” Dbeibah told his ministers.

The Premier has also accepted responsibility for the foreign minister’s illegal interaction, in spite of being unaware of the reported secret gathering, saying, “Despite everything that happened to our people, they still cling to their principles and identity. In fact, from this place, I bear full responsibility for this government, regardless of who made mistakes in it and who was responsible.”

“Long live Libya, long live its people, long live Palestine, and long live the Palestinian cause in our hearts,” he added.

On Tuesday, Libya’s parliament also condemned the meeting, while voicing opposition to any attempt toward any level of normalization with Israel, with the parliament speaker denouncing any contacts with the regime and emphasizing Libya’s support for the Palestinians. 

Aguila Saleh Issa added that no one is allowed to undermine the Palestine struggle for freedom, and everyone should work on establishing a Palestinian state with occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital.

In a sign of how just sensitive the news was for the Libyan public, the reported meeting ignited angry street protests in several Libyan cities, including mass rallies in the capital Tripoli, with demonstrations strongly condemning Israel and protesters chanting slogans in support of the Palestinians. 

This, in turn, prompted the suspended foreign minister Mangoush to reportedly flee to Turkey for fear of her safety. Her exact whereabouts remain unknown.

Israeli news reports suggest that the regime’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was furious with his foreign minister for making the news public before informing him.

Reports also suggest the United States is fuming about the Israeli announcement of the reported meeting amid the wave of angry reactions from Libya.

Both Israel and the US are reportedly said to have hoped the private meeting could have materialized into some type of PR boost for Israel and President Biden, ahead of the 2024 US presidential election with a view to some kind of normalization agenda between Israel and Libya.

The response from the Libyan people and the government officials since the news broke out suggests that no such measure will materialize in the foreseeable future.

Israel is finding itself isolated in West Asia after the so-called Abraham Accords which saw the UAE, Bahrain, and Morocco normalizing ties with Israel when Donald Trump was at the White House.

While Sudan formally joined the so-called Abraham Accords, relations between Sudan and the occupation regime have been frozen because of domestic opposition and political instability.
Three years later, Israel had widely hoped to expand on the so-called Abraham Accords by normalizing ties with many more states in West Asia and Africa, something that has yet to transpire.

Palestinians have said the Abraham Accords have emboldened Israel in its brutal crackdown in the occupied territories, describing the deal as a stab in the back for the Palestinian cause.

According to the United Nations, Israeli forces have killed more than 200 Palestinians so far this year, many of them women and children, the highest annual death toll since the UN began keeping records in 2005.

But 2023 has yet to end and Israeli aggression against the Palestinians continues to expand, particularly the almost daily pre-dawn heavy military invasions in the occupied West Bank cities, towns and villages that have been condemned by human rights groups as “merciless”.

On Friday, the regime's military raided several cities in the occupied West Bank, killing an innocent teacher in the village of Aqaba, while injuring and arresting many others, including family members of residents that Israel claims are wanted. 

Israel is being governed by one of the most fascist regimes in the entity’s short history.  And while former Israeli rulers committed similar war crimes against the Palestinians, observers say the new ministers in Netanyahu’s cabinet are not even trying to hide their brutal and illegal practices, unlike previous ones who tried to cover them up. Netanyahu’s cabinet openly boasts about killing Palestinian civilians.

This has added extra pressure on any regional state's official pondering the idea of some kind of diplomatic normalization and being seen warming up to the new fanatical criminal gang in charge of the occupied Palestinian territories.

 

US backs Chevron in dispute with Cyprus

According to Reuters, Washington has weighed into a dispute between Cyprus and international companies led by Chevron over how to develop a giant offshore gas field, backing the US Company’s plan to link it to neighbouring Egypt.

The Chevron-led consortium proposed connecting the Aphrodite gas field via a subsea pipeline and existing infrastructure to Egypt, where the gas can be sold in the domestic market or liquefied and shipped to Europe, which has largely been cut off from Russian supplies.

Cypriot Energy Minister George Papanastasiou confirmed that the government had rejected the latest plan, which omitted a previous proposal to build a floating gas processing plant at the field which lies 160 kilometers (100 miles) southeast of Cyprus.

"The modification has been rejected. The expectation of the Republic of Cyprus is that the consortium honours what was mutually agreed by the parties in 2019," Papanastasiou told Reuters.

The partners have engaged in a new round of talks with the Cypriot government, Israel's NewMed, which is a partner in the Aphrodite field, said earlier this week.

The United States is backing Chevron's plans, which it believes will help to get gas to the market faster and with a lower carbon footprint as it does not involve building large infrastructure.

"Connecting Aphrodite to Egypt will help them with peak domestic consumption in the summer, add stability and reduce tensions in the region, and allow exports for Europe," the US source said.

The Biden administration is making the distinction between expensive and unnecessary infrastructure projects and less work-intensive interconnections that are necessary as economies transition to cleaner forms of energy, the source said.

Aphrodite, discovered more than a decade ago, holds an estimated 124 billion cubic meters of gas. Chevron is a partner in the field with NewMed and Shell.

Its development would give a vital boost to the Eastern Mediterranean gas basin which has attracted huge investment in recent years, particularly in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine as Europe sought to replace Russian fossil fuel.

According to two industry sources, Nicosia objected to Chevron's plans to drill three production wells rather than five and avoid the construction of a floating production unit above the field.

A Chevron spokesperson said the consortium was working to progress the Aphrodite project.

"We have submitted a modified development plan to the Cypriot Government, which we hope will lead to the development of the Aphrodite field and delivery of gas to Egyptian and global markets via existing LNG (liquefied natural gas) plants on the north coast of Egypt."

"We believe it is important that Aphrodite is expeditiously developed for the benefit of Cyprus, the Eastern Mediterranean region and European and other international markets," Chevron said.  

 

 

 

 

Iranian export to ECO members on the rise

Iran exported over US$3.6 billion worth of commodities to the members of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) in the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year. This reflected a 4.52%YoY increase, said an official with the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA).

According to Omid Golzari, the head of the IRICA Office of International Affairs and Public Relations, Iran exported 8.161 tons of goods to the ECO members during the said period, Tasnim News Agency reported.

The volume of exports also increased by 31.24% as compared to the same period last year.

As previously announced by the IRICA head, Iran’s trade with the members of the Economic Cooperation Organization reached US$20.5 billion in the previous Iranian calendar year.

According to Mohammad Rezvani-Far, Iran exported US$13 billion worth of commodities to the said nations last year, while the imports were recorded at US$7.5 billion.

Referring to the trade potentials of ECO member countries in various fields, such as rail and land transport, common borders, as well as territorial and population size, Rezvani-Far said the volume of commercial exchanges with ECO members should be more than this figure.

“IRICA is fully prepared to take the necessary measures for increasing the volume of trade and transit exchanges with ECO members in order to achieve the organization’s goals set according to the ECO agreement,” he said.

The official underlined the development of transit ties with ECO members as a way of boosting trade exchanges with the mentioned countries.

“Iran has many customs agreements and memorandums with ECO member countries, and in order for these agreements to be operational in line with the provisions of the ECO agreement, it is suggested that the ECO secretariat announces the necessary measures needed to be taken with the cooperation of the members,” he noted.

Iran and ECO members traded more than 23.723 million tons of goods worth US$11.71 billion during the previous Iranian calendar year, of which the share of exports was 18.419 million tons of goods worth US$6.890 billion and the share of imports from these countries was 5.312 million tons worth US$4.819 billion.

Petroleum products, dairy products, foodstuff, fresh and dried fruits, juices and citrus fruits, carpets, saffron, fish, caviar, ornamental aquatic products, various stones, construction equipment, clothing, industrial equipment, bags and shoes, medicine, and health supplies, as well as plastic products, were Iran’s main exported items to ECO members last year, while basic goods, industrial machinery, raw materials for production, and medical supplies and medicine, were the top imported goods from ECO member states.

The Economic Cooperation Organization or ECO is an Asian political and economic intergovernmental organization that was founded in 1985 in Tehran by the leaders of Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey.

Singapore: Tharman the Next President

The former Singapore ruling party stalwart Tharman Shanmugaratnam has won 70.4% of the vote in a crushing victory in the republic’s three-way presidential contest, a result that foiled expectations that he would be hurt by recent political scandals involving his ex-colleagues.

The Elections Department officially declared in favour of the 66-year-old in the early hours of Saturday. Earlier, the other two candidates, Ng Kok Song and Tan Kin Lian, effectively conceded the race.

Ng won 15.72% of valid votes while Tan received 13.88% of the votes. More than 2.48 million votes were cast in Singapore, with 50,152 rejected votes.

Tharman, a 22-year veteran of the long-ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), had faced questions during the campaign over whether the party’s recent political scandals – as well as overall public disquiet over rising inflation – would hurt his chances.

Tharman said he was humbled by the result. “It’s a vote of optimism for a future in which we can progress together and support each other as Singaporeans,” he said.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the leader of the PAP government, said in a statement that he had called Tharman and assured him of the administration’s full cooperation.

“I have every confidence that he will carry out his duties as President with distinction,” Lee said. “Tharman has also declared his intention to work closely with the government,” he added.

The three candidates met stringent criteria to run for the race to succeed the incumbent, President Halimah Yacob, for a six-year term.

The republic’s presidency is a largely ceremonial role with custodial powers over the use of the country’s vast fiscal reserves and appointment of key public officials such as the chief justice, military chief, police commissioner and the attorney general.

Ng, 75, is a former chief investment officer at the state investor GIC, and was seen as the next most palatable to the republic’s middle-ground voters.

Tan, also 75, is a former chief executive of the state-linked insurer NTUC. He gained endorsements from a handful of opposition politicians, and was described as the preferred choice of voters hoping to use the contest to show their disaffection with the PAP.