The English website of the Islamic magazine - Al-Mujtama. A leading source of global Islamic and Arabic news, views and information for more than 50 years.
February 11, 2025
Staff
Turkey's Red Crescent sends humanitarian aid to Belarusian-Polish border
December 05, 2021The Turkish Red Crescent has sent shipment of humanitarian aid to the Belarusian-Polish border to help ease the migrant crisis there, the aid group announced on Saturday.
A truck containing heaters, mattresses, blankets, pillows, sleeping bags, and hygiene kits left the metropolis Istanbul for Belarus.
New shipments will be planned in line with demand, said a statement.
Attending the humanitarian aid sending ceremony were Turkish Red Crescent Deputy General Managers Alper Kucuk and Ibrahim Ozer, as well as International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) Secretary General Jagan Chapagain, and IFRC Europe Director Birgitte Bischoff Ebbesen.
Up to 2,000 people are waiting at Belarus’ Bruzgi border crossing into Poland without housing and in poor conditions as the weather grows colder.
Since August, the EU countries bordering Belarus – Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland – have reported a dramatic rise in irregular crossings.
More than 8,000 people have tried to enter the bloc via the Belarusian-EU border in 2021, up sharply from just 150 last year.
According to the EU, Belarus reaches out to potential travelers through seemingly official channels, including diplomatic missions and travel agencies, and lures them to Belarus by offering them visas. They are then allegedly guided to the EU border.
On Thursday, in response to the migration crisis, the EU imposed a new round of sanctions on Belarus, targeting among others its national airline and tourism companies./aa
Crypto market loses $500B after investor's Fed warning
December 05, 2021The total value of the global cryptocurrency market narrowed by around $500 billion after prominent investor Louis Navellier’s warning that the US Federal Reserve’s tapering could burst the Bitcoin and crypto bubble.
In an interview to London-based news outlet Insider, Navellier said the Fed’s tapering “should create a correction in risk assets, of which bitcoin is a part.”
He also warned that Bitcoin’s price could drop below $10,000.
Following his remarks, the global crypto market’s value plummeted to $2.13 trillion as of 08.39 (GMT0539) on Saturday, from $2.65 trillion on Friday.
The flagship Bitcoin lost around 16% to hit $47,719 within 24 hours, while Ethereum dropped by 13.4% to $3,949./aa
Oil rig count in US remains unchanged this week
December 05, 2021The oil rig count in the U.S. remained unchanged this week, according to oilfield services company Baker Hughes data on Friday.
The number of oil rigs in the country stayed at 467, the data showed.
At Friday's trading close, the price of international benchmark Brent crude stood at $69.91 per barrel, while American benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was at $66.27 a barrel./aa
The US is “deeply concerned” by the continued escalation of Daesh/ISIS attacks in Iraq, including Thursday’s attack in the country's north, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday.
The statement came after 13 people – 10 Peshmerga soldiers of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) and three civilians – were killed in a Daesh/ISIS terror attack in the village of Khadirjija at the foot of Mount Qarachokh, in Makhmour, Nineveh, some 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of the KRG capital Erbil.
“The US reaffirms our commitment to supporting the Iraqi Security Forces, including the Peshmerga, as they continue the fight against ISIS to ensure its enduring defeat,” Blinken said in a written statement.
Blinken also extended condolences to the families of those killed and injured in the attacks.
Attacks blamed on Daesh/ISIS fighters have escalated in Iraq in recent months, especially in the provinces of Salahuddin, Diyala, and Kirkuk.
In 2017, Iraq declared victory over Daesh/ISIS by reclaiming all of its territories – about a third of the country's area – invaded by the terror group in 2014.
But the terrorist group still maintains sleeper cells in large areas of Iraq and periodically launches attacks. The Iraqi army continues to carry out frequent operations against the group in parts of the country./aa
Turkey to soon ensure stability in prices, currency rates: Erdogan
December 05, 2021Not too long from now, hopefully, Turkey will tame current price movements and currency fluctuations to a reasonable and stable line, the nation’s president said on Saturday.
The government will always back producers and those who provide employment with low interest rates, Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during an opening ceremony in the southeastern province of Siirt.
Touching on next year’s minimum wage, which is set to be determined this month, Erdogan stressed: "We will relieve our low-income people a little more by setting the minimum wage at a level that will compensate for losses."
On the country's Central Bank reserves, he said that under the nearly two decades his Justice and Development (AK) Party has been in power, the bank's reserves have risen dramatically from $27.5 billion to $126 billion.
Recent interest rate cuts in Turkey have been followed by price hikes as well as the nation's currency, the Turkish lira, losing value.
Erdogan has said the rate cuts are part of his "new economic model" and a "war of economic liberation" for Turkey.
"Interest rates are the reason, inflation is the result," Erdogan has said, pledging that his policies will lead to high growth and broad-based prosperity./aa
Yemen rebels claim to have downed US-made spy drone in Marib
December 05, 2021Houthi rebels in Yemen on Saturday claimed to have intercepted a US-made spy drone in the central province of Marib.
Rebel spokesman Yahya Saree said in a statement that Houthi air defenses brought down an American-made ScanEagle spy plane in the Marib’s al-Jubah district, adding that the aircraft was carrying out “hostile actions” in the area.
The Houthi claim comes just hours after the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen carried out airstrikes on rebel sites in the capital Sanaa.
Saree said Houthi rebels have shot down seven US-made spy drones in Yemen this year.
There was no comment from US officials or the Yemeni government on the Houthi claim.
In recent months, Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels have stepped up attacks to take control of the oil-rich Marib province, one of the most important strongholds of the legitimate government and home to the headquarters of Yemen’s Defense Ministry.
Yemen has been engulfed by violence and instability since 2014, when Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels captured much of the country, including the capital Sanaa.
A Saudi-led coalition aimed at reinstating the Yemeni government has worsened the situation, causing one of the world’s worst man-made humanitarian crises, with nearly 80% or about 30 million needing humanitarian assistance and protection, and more than 13 million in danger of starvation, according to UN estimates.
A recent United Nations report projected that by year’s-end the death toll from the seven-year Yemeni conflict will reach 377,000./aa
Pakistan receives $3B cash support from Saudi Arabia
December 05, 2021Pakistan on Saturday received $3 billion from longtime ally Saudi Arabia to bolster its dwindling foreign reserves.
“Good news. $3 billion Saudi deposits received by SBP (State Bank of Pakistan). I want to thank His Excellency Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the kind gesture,” Shaukat Tarin, adviser to the Pakistani prime minister on finance, said on Twitter.
The deposits, which are for one year at 4% interest, are part of a financial support package pledged by Saudi Arabia during Prime Minister Imran Khan’s October visit to Riyadh.
As soaring inflation and a sliding rupee wallop Pakistan’s tottering economy, Islamabad’s commitments for funding from the International Monetary Fund, which include withdrawal of tax exemptions and budget tightening, have led to growing anger among the population and put Khan’s government under increasing pressure.
Apart from the cash support, Saudi Arabia will also give Islamabad oil supplies worth $1.2 billion on deferred payments.
With the Saudi deposits, Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves have gone up to $25.498 billion.
In 2018, Riyadh gave $3 billion in cash and a $3 billion oil facility to Pakistan to help shore up its depleted foreign exchange reserves.
However, Islamabad had to return $2 billion of the $3 billion as relations between the two allies deteriorated, mainly on the issue of the 2019 Kuala Lumpur Summit.
The summit, backed by countries including Malaysia and Turkey, was opposed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who viewed it as a threat to their grip on the Muslim world.
Pakistan, which was among the initial supporters of the meeting, was forced to pull out of the summit due to Riyadh’s concerns./YS
G7 health ministers issued a joint statement on Monday saying that the “global community is faced, at a first evaluation, with the threat of a new, highly transmissible variant of COVID-19, which requires urgent action.”
The UK had called for the urgent meeting to discuss the Omicron variant.
The joint statement continued with the ministers praising the “exemplary work of South Africa in both detecting the variant and alerting others to it.”
The ministers said there was “strong support” to set up an international pathogen surveillance network within the framework of the World Health Organization
The statement added: “Ministers also recognised the strategic relevance of ensuring access to vaccines, including surge for vaccines absorption and country readiness for receiving and deploying COVID vaccines, providing operational assistance, taking forward our donation commitments, and tackling vaccine misinformation, as well as supporting research and development.”
The G7 health minister committed to meeting again in December./YS
Rights groups urge Macron to refuse protection to Syrian war criminal
December 04, 2021Human rights groups urged President Emmanuel Macron on Friday to ensure France exercises the principle of “universal jurisdiction” and refuse protection to perpetrators of crimes against humanity.
The request came after a court ruled that it had a lack of jurisdiction to prosecute a Syrian war criminal.
In an open letter titled, “France should not be a land where torturers are not tried in Syria,” 11 organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights League (LDH), European Constitution and Human Rights Center (ECCHR), appealed to Macron to urgently amend the legal Code of Criminal Procedure to prosecute individuals living in France who are accused of war crimes in their country of origin.
It concerns the Nov. 24 ruling in the case of former Syrian intelligence officer Abdulhamid C, who has been imprisoned in France since January on torture and crimes against humanity charges.
Prosecutors said he was part of a state operation in notorious detention facilities where hundreds of prisoners were tortured, starved and left to die.
Horrific images of corpses in the prisons documenting systematic torture by Assad forces, were made public as the Caesar Files Group after being smuggled out by a former Syrian military police employee named “Caesar.”
The criminal chamber of the Court of Cassation said French courts lacked jurisdiction to prosecute Syrians living in France for committing war crimes in Syria because that country has not ratified the Rome Statute and its domestic laws do not sanction crimes against humanity.
The court ruled on the basis of Article 689-11 in the Code of Criminal Procedure, which gives jurisdiction to French courts “over a person habitually residing in France who has committed one of the offenses listed in the Rome Statute, provided that the offense is punishable in the state in which it was committed or in the state of the person's citizenship, if the state is a party to the Rome Statute.”
The letter said France has sent a “disastrous signal to all the executioners on the planet” with the ruling.
It asked Macron to commit to the assurances given by him as a presidential candidate to enforce the “application of universal jurisdiction.”
The French judiciary in 2010 adopted a law which in effect rendered that genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in countries that are not a party to the Rome Statute, the Establishment of the International Criminal Court, cannot be tried in France. Thereby making “the exercise of universal jurisdiction for the most serious crimes is made legally impossible,” said the letter.
France opened an investigation concerning crimes against humanity against Abdulhamid C in 2015 after he fled Syria and illegally entered France.
In 2019, he was arrested in Paris in a joint operation by France and Germany for his involvement in the Caesar Files.
Germany has prosecuted two former Syrian military intelligence agents involved in the Caesar Files on the principle of “universal justice.”/aa
International community has ‘failed in the refugee crisis,’ says top Turkish official
December 04, 2021Turkey's presidential spokesman said Friday that the International community has “failed in the refugee crisis.”
Kalin told the 7th edition of the Rome Mediterranean Dialogue (MED) in Rome that Turkey has hosted 4 million Syrians and noted he talked to his European counterparts to update the 2016 migration deal between Turkey and the EU.
He said €6 billion ($6.7 billion) that was allocated by the EU is nothing if one considers the enormous size of the issue.
"It's practically nothing for millions of refugees for their needs, educational needs, medical needs and everything else," he said.
Let us put aside the debates within the EU, he said, noting that Turkey hopes the migration agreement will be updated.
Meanwhile, stating that the UN-supervised Geneva process on Syria has been rendered dysfunctional by the Assad regime, Kalin underlined that Turkey was trying to engage Russia and Iran, which back the regime, to put pressure on the regime.
The deal was signed March 18, 2016, as the Syrian civil war continued to uproot millions who then began their "journey of hope" to reach the EU.
The agreement contained six key points, including the reinvigoration of Ankara's EU ascension process, modernization of the Customs Union, revival of top-level dialogue, visa liberalization for Turkish nationals, cooperation in managing migration flows and counter-terrorism./aa
