Bangladesh Nationalist Party aligns with US Indo-Pacific Strategy

In South Asian pre and post colonial political history, no political party has faced as much oppression as the Bangladesh Nationalist Party has under the current Awami League regime except what the latter faced during the war of liberation. There is a difference though between the oppression that the Awami League faced in 1971 under Pakistan’s military regime and what the Bangladesh Nationalist Party has faced since January 2009, when the Awami League assumed office.

In 1971, the Awami League’s top leadership crossed the border into India after Bangabandhu had surrendered to the Pakistan military on the night of March 25–26. Thus, the Awami League’s top leadership was in safety in Kolkata. The Indian government and its intelligence looked after the Awami League’s top leadership during the nine months that the Pakistani military carried out its crimes against inhumanity inside Bangladesh.

The BNP leadership as well as its grass roots has had no such luck. The Awami League regime has relentlessly persecuted them because they had no friendly country to flee. The extent of such persecution was revealed by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party at a seminar for foreign diplomatic missions and the civil society held in Dhaka recently.

The seminar chaired by the BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir was titled ‘A Democratic Future for Bangladesh and the Indo-Pacific Strategy.’ The BNP’s foreign affairs committee chairman Amir Khashru Mahmud Chowdhury presented the paper.

The BNP’s seminar also flagged the need for Bangladesh to embrace the Biden administration’s IPS, which has everything not just to save democracy and rights that are on the slippery slope but also to transform Bangladesh into a middle-income country and beyond as a liberal democracy.

The paper came up with mind-boggling statistics on the persecution that the Bangladesh Nationalist Party has faced in leading people’s movement against the Awami League regime’s efforts to turn the country into a one-party state.

Thus far, 1,204 BNP leaders and activists have been victims of enforced disappearances; 1,539 have died in political killing in crossfire and 799 in extrajudicial killings. The Awami League regime has filed 141,633 ‘fabricated and unfounded cases’ involving 4,947,019. These figures, reprehensible as they are, abated significantly following the US sanctions in December 2021 on the Rapid Action Battalion and the police for serious rights violations.

Khaleda Zia, the BNP chairperson, is in the twilight zone between life and death for her life-threatening medical condition and incarceration since 2018 through politically motivated cases. The regime has not allowed her to go abroad for treatment not available at home. Tareq Zia has been exiled and is running the BNP as the acting chairman from London. He has kept the party united and energized. In between, the Awami League regime has tried to break the BNP through the proverbial ‘Mir Jafars’ that has failed.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party is leading today the most courageous and determined movement for democracy and human and political rights against odds that few political parties in the history of such movements in developing countries have faced.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party has successfully brought the entire opposition parties and forces under one umbrella without resorting to violence. The Awami League regime’s efforts to use every imaginable and unimaginable way to break the BNP have only enhanced the latter’s resolve and determination to fight the regime in the same spirit and determination with which the people fought the Pakistani military in 1971. Thus, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party today is more united and determined to fight and defeat the Awami League regime that has systematically thwarted people’s political, democratic and human rights.

The seminar flagged the BNP’s role in the nation’s fight for democracy, and human and political rights. It also gave a vision for the nation that would help Bangladesh to get back on its feet in a post-AL regime where whichever party assumes office will have to rebuild Bangladesh institutionally, politically and in the context of critical foreign relations from scratch.

It is now an open secret that the Awami League regime has systematically weakened all institutions of nation-building to make Bangladesh and the Awami League one with the interests of the party dominating over and subservient to the interests of the country. Today, the civil bureaucracy, the law enforcement agencies and even constitutional bodies such as the Election Commission are indistinguishable from the ruling party. Or else, the deputy commissioner of Jamalpur would not have openly and unashamedly sought people’s support for the ruling party or ambassadors abroad would not have been present and anchored the prime minister’s political meetings abroad with the Awami League diaspora.

The Awami League regime has, meanwhile, managed to turn the United States, in particular, and the west, in general, into Bangladesh’s adversaries. It did so oblivious of the fact that it would need the US-west in an indispensable manner for graduating to a middle-income country.

The Awami League regime has, thus, damaged Bangladesh’s critically important relations with the Biden administration although the United States is pursuing democracy and human and political rights in its bilateral relations with Bangladesh because these are against its interests in Bangladesh’s current politics.

The regime has also deliberately brought the US’s 1971 role into the equation to create an anti-US sentiment although the Biden administration is pursuing the issues for which Bangladesh fought its liberation war.

The Awami League regime also stated for the same reason, to create an anti-US sentiment in Bangladesh, that the Biden administration would stop opposing if it gave it St Martins Island to the United States to build a military base although it was told to the contrary by the high delegations that visited Dhaka in recent times.

The Awami League regime also tried to derail the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, which is a win-win strategy for Bangladesh and the nations in the Indo-Pacific. The regime gave lip service to the IPS with its Indo-Pacific Outlook that it announced in April. The Biden administration ignored the Awami League regime’s Indo-Pacific Outlook because it knew that if the regime was serious, it would not have accused the United States of seeking a military base after senior US officials had informed the AL regime to the contrary.

The BNP’s seminar on embracing IPS was, therefore, a smart move for the future of Bangladesh and the region as an examination of the strategy would reveal. The IPS is free and open with ‘governance that is transparent and responsive to the people.’ It is based upon connectivity in all its facets to bring nations closer to one another. The IPS is also based upon a free, fair, open and reciprocal trade regime to make the region prosperous. It stresses resilience for improved health security and economic ability to help nations ‘withstand climate change, pandemics and transnational threats.’ Finally, the IPS is secure as it ensures ‘movements of people, ideas, and goods across the international sea, land, and air borders and cyberspace are made legally.’

The Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific Strategy is, thus, the USA’s soft power approach for the Indo-Pacific region to deal with China’s expansion by avoiding the military path. Its present involvement in Bangladesh in pursuit of democracy and rights is also in pursuit of its Indo-Pacific Strategy which is why it is so determined to ensure that Bangladesh succeeds in holding its next general election freely, fairly, and peacefully for democracy, human and political rights to succeed.

The BNP’s seminar on democracy and the IPS was, therefore, extremely important. It flagged the need for the country to commit itself again to the causes for which millions embraced martyrdom in 1971.

 Courtesy: The Bangladesh Chronicle

 

 

 

Iran: Chinese investment in railway and renewable energy projects

First Vice President of Iran on Thursday discussed the strengthening Tehran-Beijing ties with Premier of the People’s Republic of China Li Qiang in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. The meeting was held on the sidelines of the 22nd session of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). Iran officially became a full member of the SCO in April 2023.

Mohammad Mokhber said the relations between Iran and China rooted in history and culture and said Iran has extensive capacities and capabilities that can be put to use in the two countries’ ties. 

Mokhber announced that Iran sees the development of ties with China as extremely important. “The development of Makran and Chabahar coasts, the construction of 15,000 megawatts of renewable power plants, mining development, Tehran-Mashhad and Tehran-Isfahan high-speed train projects, and transit cooperation in the west and east are all on Iran's agenda, and we welcome China's participation and investment in these areas,” the official noted. 

The vice president also emphasized the full implementation of the 25-year cooperation agreement between Iran and China. The deal signed in 2021 includes economic, military and security cooperation.

Mokhber also took the time to thank Beijing for its stance on Israel’s brutal attacks on Gaza which have so far resulted in the death of more than 7,000 civilians. 

“The bitter events in Gaza and Palestine hurt the heart of every noble, free, and conscientious person, and unfortunately, in the current chaotic situation and war crimes being committed by the Zionist regime in Gaza, most of the casualties are among civilians, women, and children”. 

The Chinese premier, for his part, described Iran as one of the major and influential countries in the West Asian region. “Iran's full presence and membership in Shanghai and BRICS will strengthen these organizations and be very useful for regional and global peace and stability,” he said. 

“The relations between the two countries have always had a growing trend since the establishment of political relations fifty years ago, and this year important agreements have been concluded between Tehran and Beijing with two meetings between the presidents of the two countries,” Li said, adding that Beijing regards Tehran as an important partner and seeks to further enhance ties with the West Asian country. 

 

US should stop backing Israeli genocide in Gaza

Addressing the UN General Assembly on Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian accused the US of siding with the occupying regime of Israel in its relentless bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip.

He also said the resistance forces that are fighting to liberate their stolen lands are branded as terrorists but say the Israeli regime that has occupied the Palestinian lands is defending itself.

“They call the Palestinian self-liberation movement, which has a right to self-defense, terrorists, but they refer to the occupying and war criminal regime ‑ Israel, that is committing genocide in Gaza, as having the right to self-defense,” Amir Abdollahian lamented.

“The US and several European countries are watching and supporting the killing of about 7,000 civilians in less than three weeks by the Israeli regime. They help this regime militarily and financially,” he said, according to Al Jazeera.

“We recommend that the US works for peace and security, not war against women and children … and to stop sending rockets, tanks and bombs to be used against the people of Gaza. The US should stop supporting genocide in Gaza and Palestine.”

US President Joe Biden visited Tel Aviv on October 18 to express unwavering support for Israel in its relentless onslaught on the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The night before his arrival in Tel Aviv, Israeli fighter jets exploded Al-Ahli al-Arabi in the city of Gaza killing 500 civilians, including the injured, medical staff, and citizens who had taken shelter there from the Israeli bombardments. 

The bombardment of the hospital prompted Arab leaders, including the Palestinian Authority president and the king of Jordan, to cancel a meeting with Biden in Egypt.

The US has also aborted draft resolutions at the UN Security Council to halt the war.

The Israeli war on Gaza, which is home to over 2 million people, has been described as genocide and war crime in terms of international law. 

After the Biden visit to the occupied territories, the leaders of Germany, Britain and France have visited Israel to express their solidarity with the occupation regime of Israel.

The war started after the Hamas resistance group launched a surprise attack on portions of lands occupied by Israel in 1948 in retaliation to the regime's brutal attacks on the Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank.

Richard Falk, an international law scholar who taught at Princeton University for forty years, has said the West's refusal to call for a ceasefire is a green light to Israel’s ethnic cleansing.

“By failing to advocate for a ceasefire, western states have given a green light to Israel’s agenda of collective punishment, which might itself be grotesque cover for the regime’s end goal of massive dispossession and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people,” Falk wrote in Middle East Eye on October 24.

 

Arab states support two-state solution for lasting peace

The participating nations, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Egypt, Iraq, Morocco, Mauritania, and the United Comoros Republic, collectively condemned and rejected the targeting of civilians, all acts of violence and terrorism against them, and any violations or transgressions of international law, including international humanitarian law, by any party. This condemnation extends to the targeting of civilian infrastructure.

They stressed the importance of the international community, especially the Security Council, assuming its responsibilities to seek peace in the Middle East. This includes expeditious, genuine, and collective efforts to resolve the conflict and implement a two-state solution based on relevant UN resolutions, ensuring the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state with contiguous territory, viable for life, along the lines of pre-June 4, 1967, borders with its capital in East Jerusalem.

The statement denounced forced individual or collective displacement and policies of collective punishment. It strongly opposed any attempts to settle the Palestinian issue at the expense of the Palestinian people and the peoples of the region. The forced displacement of the Palestinian people is deemed a grave violation of international humanitarian law and a war crime.

The signatories underscored the need to fully commit to ensuring the complete respect for the Geneva Conventions of 1949, particularly concerning the responsibilities of the occupying force. They also stressed the importance of the immediate release of hostages and civilian detainees, ensuring safe, dignified, and humane treatment for them in accordance with the international law. The role of the International Committee of the Red Cross in this regard is highlighted.

The statement emphasized that the right to self-defense, as outlined in the UN Charter, does not justify flagrant violations of international law and humanitarian law, or the deliberate neglect of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, including the right to self-determination and an end to the decades-long occupation.

The signatories called on the UN Security Council to compel parties to the conflict to an immediate and sustainable ceasefire. They stressed that hesitation in characterizing blatant violations of international humanitarian law serves as a green light for the continuation of such practices and complicity in their commission.

Furthermore, the statement urged action to ensure and facilitate rapid and sustainable access for humanitarian aid to Gaza without obstacles, in accordance with relevant humanitarian principles. It called for the mobilization of additional resources in collaboration with the UN and its affiliated organizations, especially UNRWA.

Expressing deep concern over the possibility of the current confrontations expanding and the conflict spreading to other areas in the Middle East, the signatories appealed to all parties to exercise maximum restraint. They underscored that the expansion of this conflict would have severe consequences on the peoples of the region and international peace and security.

The statement also expressed profound concern about the escalating violence in the West Bank and called on the international community to support and enhance the Palestinian Authority. Financial assistance to the Palestinian people, including through Palestinian institutions, is deemed to be of utmost importance.

The signatories affirmed that the absence of a political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict led to the recurrence of violence and suffering for both the Palestinian and Israeli peoples and the peoples of the region.

Palestinians 56 years of suffocating occupation, says UN Chief

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said the October 07 military operation against Israel did not happen in a vacuum, noting that the Palestinians have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.

The remarks by the world’s top diplomat angered Israel. The regime’s envoy to the UN, Gilad Erdan, called for the resignation of Guterres, saying Israel must rethink its relations with the world body.

“The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing,” Guterres said.

Following such remarks, the foreign minister of Israel also canceled his scheduled meeting with the UN chief.

Also, in a post on X, Guterres said, "The grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the horrific attacks by Hamas. These horrendous attacks also cannot justify subjecting the entire Palestinian population to collective punishment."

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in an annual report on Palestine has said Gaza has endured 16 years of de-development, as well as suppressed human potential and the right to development.

 

Israel preparing for ground invasion of Gaza, says Netanyahu

Israel is preparing a ground invasion of Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a televised statement on Wednesday, but he declined to provide any details on the timing or other information about the operation.

He said the decision on when forces would go into the Palestinian enclave, controlled by the Islamist movement Hamas, would be taken by the government's special war cabinet, which includes the leader of one of the centrist opposition parties.

"We have already killed thousands of terrorists and this is only the beginning," Netanyahu said.

"Simultaneously, we are preparing for a ground invasion. I will not elaborate on when, how or how many. I will also not elaborate on the various calculations we are making, which the public is mostly unaware of and that is how things should be."

Israel has carried out days of intense bombardment of the densely populated Gaza Strip following the October 07 Hamas attack on Israeli communities that killed some 1,400 people. More than 6,500 Palestinians have been killed in the bombardments, according to Gaza's health ministry.

Netanyahu, who has so far not taken responsibility for the security failures that led to the Hamas attack, said all involved would be called to account.

"The scandal will be fully investigated," he said. "Everyone will have to give answers, me too. But all this will happen only after the war."

Earlier, citing US and Israeli officials, the Wall Street Journal reported that Israel had agreed to delay the invasion of Gaza for now, so the United States could rush missile defences to the region.

Reuters reported on Monday that Washington advised Israel to hold off on a ground assault and is keeping Qatar - a broker with the Palestinian militants - apprised of those talks as its tries to free more hostages and prepare for a possible wider regional war.

Pro Israeli remarks trigger walkout at IPU meeting

The inaugural speech at the 147th Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly in Luanda, Angola, drew an angry reaction from several Muslim delegations that deemed President Duarte Pacheco’s remarks in favor of the Israeli regime unjust and misleading.

On Monday the president, who is wrapping up his three-year term, kicked off his speech by commenting on “Israel’s right to defend itself”, referring to the regime’s heavy and relentless bombardment of Gaza in recent days.

The attacks have so far resulted in the death of more than 5,000 people, with children making up half of the casualties. Israel has also begun a full siege of the territory not allowing any food, water, fuel, and medicine inside Gaza. 

Delegations from South Africa, Iran, Kuwait, Palestine, Algeria, and some other Muslim countries reportedly walked out of the opening ceremony after a member of the Iranian delegation shouted “Israel is a terrorist entity” to protest the president’s remarks. 

The Parliamentary delegations returned to the ceremony once the speech was over and once again voiced their strong opposition to the rhetoric against the Palestinian Resistance. 

After the incident, Pacheco’s past interactions with the regime were brought to the limelight. The IPU president, who is supposed to represent 179 parliaments from around the world, visited the occupied territories in 2021 a year after being elected. 

During an interview with Israeli media, the official expressed regret that the IPU has chosen to condemn the regime at some instances. “I regret that there are such condemnations against Israel, because I don’t believe that they contribute to a spirit of dialogue,” he said while talking to the Jewish News Syndicate. 

Pacheco was also called a true friend of Israel during a meeting with the Knesset speaker Mickey Levy.