Middle East Experience

The world should give Afghanistan’s Taliban “time” to provide equal human rights in the country and protect them, and the international community should take an incentive-based approached when dealing with the group, Pakistan’s PM Imran Khan told CNN in an interview.“It's a mistake to think that someone from outside will give Afghan women rights. Afghan women are strong. Give them time. They will get their rights,” Khan urged in CNN’s interview published on Wednesday.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan on August 15 and shortly after announced an all-male interim government made up of senior group figures.Since taking over, the group launched a charm offensive to rehabilitate their hardline image of their 1996-2001 era, when women were not allowed to leave their homes without a male escort, had to be veiled, and were not allowed to work at most jobs except in healthcare.The Taliban promised amnesty to Afghans who worked for foreign governments and vowed to protect the rights of women this time around.However, the Taliban’s newly announced cabinet also doesn’t include a single woman and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs was apparently disbanded.The Taliban also segregated between male and female students in educational institutes, separating them with a curtain in some classes, and assigning separate classrooms for each gender in other cases.Senior Taliban figure, Waheedullah Hashimi, told Reuters on Monday that women should not be allowed to work alongside men.Women activists and former female political leaders said they expected to be treated as “second class” citizens at best.The Pakistani PM also stressed the importance of having an Afghan government rather than outside oversight over the country and how the world should “incentivize” the Taliban towards taking the right course of action“No puppet government in Afghanistan is supported by the people. So rather than sitting here and thinking that we can control them, we should incentivize them. Because Afghanistan, this current government, clearly feels that without international aid and help, they will not be able to stop this crisis. So we should push them in the right direction,” he said.Pakistan has deep historic ties with the Taliban. The country’s spy chief was one of the first foreign officials to visit Kabul earlier this month and a Pakistani senior official said that Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed could help the Taliban reorganize the Afghan military.The US has long accused Pakistan of supporting the Taliban; a charge Islamabad denies.Some reports claimed Pakistan's military forces helped the Taliban in the fight to capture Panjshir province from the National Resistance Front (NRF) led by Ahmad Massoud.Read more:Conflict amongst Taliban leaders, deputy PM unhappy with government makeup: ReportTaliban demand US remove its leaders from terrorist blacklist, unfreeze Afghan assetsPakistan gave military aid to Taliban in fight against Panjshir resistance: Report
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Pakistan PM: World should give Taliban ‘time’ on human rights, ‘incentivize’ group

The patriarch will also meet Ankara's US ambassador while in Washington.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew I set to meet Biden at White House

Iran acknowledged on Wednesday that it had removed several surveillance cameras installed by UN nuclear inspectors at a centrifuge assembly site that came under a mysterious attack earlier this year.The chief of the country's nuclear program, Mohammad Eslami, sought to portray the removal of cameras as Tehran's response to world powers reneging on their commitments under the tattered 2015 nuclear deal.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.“The parties did not implement their commitments so there were no necessity for the cameras’ existence,” Eslami said after a meeting with lawmakers — remarks apparently aimed at his own domestic audience under the country’s new hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi.Eslami's comments come days after a confidential International Atomic Energy Agency report that revealed the nuclear watchdog found four surveillance cameras to be destroyed and damaged after their removal from the centrifuge manufacturing site in Karaj, a city about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northwest of Tehran.In June, Iran accused Israel of mounting a sabotage attack on the site, which makes components for machines used to enrich uranium. Without disclosing details of the assault, Iranian authorities acknowledged the strike had damaged the building.Addressing swirling questions about the agency's broken surveillance cameras, Eslami said Wednesday they were damaged during recent “terrorist operations," without elaborating.The attack on Karaj was just the latest in a series of suspected assaults targeting Iran’s nuclear program that have heightened regional hostilities in recent months, as world powers attempt to salvage the now-collapsed nuclear deal. Israel is widely believed to have carried out the sabotage, though it has not claimed responsibility.Tensions eased slightly in the contest over IAEA surveillance cameras at Iran's sensitive nuclear sites earlier this week, when Iran agreed to allow international inspectors to install new memory cards into surveillance cameras at its atomic facilities to continue filming.Tehran holds all recordings at its sites as negotiations over the US and Iran returning to the landmark nuclear deal remain stalled in Vienna. As Tehran tries to ramp up pressure on the West to grant sanctions relief, the country is now enriching small amounts of uranium to its closest-ever levels to weapons-grade purity as its stockpile continues to grow.Tehran maintains its nuclear program is peaceful, and Eslami on Wednesday hit back against those who accuse Iran of covertly pursuing a nuclear bomb.“What Iran has gained in the nuclear field is based on domestic research and development, and nobody can stop this” Eslami said, adding that he will travel to Vienna next week for a meeting with the IAEA. “We should not allow ourselves to be accused of secrecy by the world.”In a similar statement pitched to the Iranian domestic audience, the country's envoy to the IAEA, Kazem Gharibabadi, also struck a harsh tone against the nuclear watchdog.The IAEA is not fulfilling “its duties and responsibilities with regard to the terrorist sabotage of peaceful facilities of its members,” Gharibabadi said, warning that “as long as the agency does not address the controversies, problems will continue.”Read more:Iran will have enough fuel for a nuclear warhead within a month: ExpertsIran’s guards physically harassed UN nuclear agency’s female inspectors: ReportIran says will not give IAEA access to surveillance cameras in nuclear facilities
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Iran admits to removing damaged IAEA cameras from nuclear site

Lebanon registers 844 COVID-19 cases, eight deaths in last 24 hours..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Lebanon registers 844 COVID-19 cases, eight deaths in last 24 hours

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz also said Israel wants to see a “viable US-led plan B” if talks between Tehran and world powers fall through.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: Gantz says Israel could accept new nuclear deal with Iran

US Secretary of State laughed at a Republican Senator’s conspiracy theory that someone in the White House had a “mute button” that was capable of stopping President Joe Biden from speaking midsentence.Republican Senator James Risch questioned Antony Blinken multiple times about what the media dubbed the “Biden mute button” during Blinken’s testimony at a hearing about Afghanistan.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.“Somebody in the White House has authority to press the button and stop the president, cut off the president’s speaking ability and sound. Who is that person?” Risch asked.“Somebody has the ability to push the button and cut off his sound and stop him from speaking. Who is that person?” he repeated.“There is no such person,” Blinken responded.“Are you telling me, this committee, that this does not happen? That there’s no one in the White House who pushes the button and cuts him off midsentence?” Risch asked again.Blinken laughed and said: “That’s correct.”“You’re telling us you don’t know anything about this. That somebody cuts him off at midsentence. Is that what you’re trying to tell this committee? Because everybody here has seen it,” Risch insisted.To which Blinken replied: “Senator, I am telling you based on my own experience with the president over the last 20 years… the President very much speaks for himself… anyone who tried to stop him from saying what he wanted to say or speaking his mind would probably not be long for their job.”The “mute button” idea apparently originated from a video clip tweeted by the Republican National Committee on Monday that shows Biden speaking at an event and then the White House feed cutting off. This is the tweet:Read more:President Biden’s new vaccine rules face legal challengesUS lawmakers: Biden ‘not living in reality’ for calling Afghanistan pullout a success‘Biden has blood on his hands’: Republicans blame US President for Kabul attacks
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Watch: Blinken laughs at senator’s conspiracy theory of Biden ‘mute button’

Iran, emboldened by the messy US withdrawal from Afghanistan, is betting that its new hardline cabinet -- including Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani -- can force concessions in talks on Tehran's 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.Bagheri, a hardline senior diplomat, was named on Tuesday to replace Abbas Araqchi, a seasoned pragmatist diplomat and chief negotiator in the negotiations that Tehran hopes will lead to a lifting of US sanctions.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.“Kani is an extension of the hardline deep state that is now in charge across all institutions in Iran and can more readily negotiate with the West as he is not just representing the government but has the empowerment of the inner circle,” said Andreas Krieg, associate professor at the School of Security at King's College in London.“It (the US withdrawal from Afghanistan) has given the regime in Tehran more confidence in their regional surrogate warfare approach while showing that the US is on the backfoot in the region.”Iran has alarmed Washington and its Gulf Arab allies by relying on proxies in Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon, to steadily spread its influence across the Middle East.Bagheri, who was named deputy foreign minister for political affairs, had been a senior negotiator in the nuclear talks under former hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from 2007 to 2013. He is a relative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Iran's parliament in late August approved all but one of President Ebrahim Raisi's big-name nominees for a cabinet of hardliners that will have the task of implementing his plans to ease US sanctions and tackle worsening economic hardship.Indirect talks between Iran and the United States stopped in June, days after Raisi was elected president of Iran. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week said time was running out for Iran to return to the nuclear accord.An official involved in the talks said Iran's enrichment with large numbers of advanced centrifuges is an unresolved issue, as is Iran's demand that it “verify” US compliance before curbing its nuclear program.This official said verification meant the easing of US sanctions, Iran's export of some of oil and its payment through an international bank before Tehran would take steps to make its program less capable of being used to make nuclear weaponsWestern powers on Monday scrapped plans for a resolution criticizing Iran at the U.N. atomic watchdog after Tehran agreed to prolong monitoring of some nuclear activities, even though the watchdog said Iran made no “promise” on another key issue.During a last-minute visit to Tehran this weekend by IAEA chief Rafael Grossi, Iran agreed to grant his agency overdue access to its equipment in Iran that monitors some sensitive areas of its nuclear program. Inspectors will swap out memory cards more than two weeks after they were due to be replaced. Grossi said on Sunday that the agreement solved “the most urgent issue” between the IAEA and Iran.He made clear on Monday, however, that on another source of concern - Iran's failure to explain uranium traces found at several old but undeclared sites - he had obtained no firm commitments.Nicki Siamaki, analyst at Control Risks, said Bagheri's appointment, particularly if he replaces Araqchi as chief nuclear negotiator, could prolong the process of reaching a deal with the United States as his masters would raise the stakes to reach a deal they see meets their conditions.The 2015 nuclear agreement imposed restrictions on Iran's nuclear activities in return for the lifting of international sanctions against Tehran.Then-President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the deal in 2018, re-imposing tough economic sanctions on Iran. Tehran responded as of a year later by breaching many of the agreement's restrictions and later enriching uranium to purity levels much closer to weapons-grade.Mohanad Hage Ali, fellow at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center, said the Iranian narrative is to persevere with their demands and they will emerge victorious against a weakening US.Lebanon's Iranian-backed Hezbollah paramilitary group, he said, has been using the images of people falling from a US plane departing from Afghanistan to suggest that those who bet on US power will suffer the same fate.“The images from Kabul's airport sent shockwaves, and have consequences,” he said.Read more:US inching ‘closer’ to closing door on return to Iran nuclear deal: BlinkenIran admits to removing damaged IAEA cameras from nuclear siteIran’s guards physically harassed UN nuclear agency’s female inspectors: ReportIran will have enough fuel for a nuclear warhead within a month: Experts
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Iran president selects hardline cabinet to drive hard bargain with US

Democracy seals the fate of the Muslim Brotherhood..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Democracy seals the fate of the Muslim Brotherhood

Qatar's community now has their hands on the list of candidates that they can vote when the Shura Council elections take place on October 2..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Finalised list of Shura Council election candidates revealed – Doha News | Qatar

A group of Afghan diplomats from Kabul’s deposed government issued on Wednesday a joint statement calling on the leaders of the international community to deny the Taliban formal recognition and blames them for leaving a nation “at the mercy of a terrorist group.”The statement was signed by 24 officials who used to work in foreign embassies and international missions.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.“We are disheartened that after twenty years of engagement, our allies are abandoning Afghanistan and leaving our people at the mercy of a terrorist group. We strongly believe that Taliban’s military takeover of Afghanistan is going to prolong Afghans’ suffering and willfurther undermine international security,” the diplomats wrote.They added: “Taliban’s success in capturing power through illegal and violent means and establishing their government will have disastrous consequences for regional and global security as it emboldens terrorist and violent extremist groups around the world.”The diplomats urged international leaders to “use all available means to put an end to Taliban violence against women, civil society, activists and journalists.”They also called for the creation of a “politically negotiated, all-inclusive and legitimate government” in Afghanistan.The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan on August 15 and shortly after announced an all-male interim government made up of senior group figures.Read more:Pakistan PM: World should give Taliban ‘time’ on human rights, ‘incentivize’ groupConflict amongst Taliban leaders, deputy PM unhappy with government makeup: ReportTaliban demand US remove its leaders from terrorist blacklist, unfreeze Afghan assets
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Afghan diplomats call on international community to deny Taliban recognition