MANILA: A regional security expert on Wednesday said the liberation of Marawi City from the Daesh-backed Maute group has not ended the threat of violent extremism in the Philippines.
Sidney Jones, director of the Indonesia-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), said this as she warned of grave consequences if the Philippine government fails to efficiently rebuild Marawi which suffered massive devastation from the five months of battle between government troops and the Maute group.
Jones also raised the possibility that children of militants killed in the Marawi siege could be the next generation of fighters. She said that there is “ongoing radicalization taking place on a very quiet, below-the-radar-screen level” among youth in Mindanao, particularly those directly affected by the Marawi crisis.
“One of the things particularly to think about are (the) children and younger siblings of people who were killed,” Jones said in a forum with foreign correspondents.
She pointed out that the government placed the number of slain terrorists at 800 to 900. The question, however, is “how do you know that all (these) people killed are really terrorists?” She that it was never clear how the determination was made to say that they are indeed militants.
The fact that the number of terrorist casualties kept going up, whereas the number of civilians stayed at 47 from the start of the siege in May all the way till the end, just “doesn’t make sense,” Jones stressed. That leaves the children and young siblings of these slain militants very vulnerable to recruitment and involvement in radical organizations, she added.
Jones thus said it is important to identify the families and children of the so-called 800 terrorists killed in Marawi, where are they, and what programs can be put in place for them.
According to the IPAC director, the problem with the children and siblings of the slain militants “could be exacerbated if there’s a failure to rebuild Marawi very quickly or efficiently.”
Jones notes that many displaced residents are not angry at the destruction of their homes, but are also unhappy at the conditions in evacuation centers — a situation that can be exploited by extremists.
“And as I say, watch the reconstruction of Marawi and watch what happens … in terms of resentment in evacuation centers if people don’t go home quickly,” she continued.
“Reconstruction of Marawi, how it’s conducted will be key,” Jones emphasized.
While saying that she doesn’t think there’s a likelihood that militants could take over another city, Jones said that revenge bombings in Manila, Zamboanga, or Cotabato can come next after the government declared victory against Daesh-backed militants in Marawi.
“We’re more likely to see bombing attacks in urban areas to say we’re (militants) still here,” Jones said.
She added there’s also a possibility of attacks on Philippine embassies elsewhere, and the rise of a new Maranao movement that will take a more Islamist stance, as well as eruption of clan wars against the Mautes. Basilan could also revert to kidnappings under Furuji Indama.
Another thing to pay attention to, she said, was the presence of Indonesians and Malaysians in Marawi
“It is important to note how far back the links between Mindanao-based Indonesian extremists actually go. There’s a long, complex history with lots of different groups … just because Marawi is liberated doesn’t mean an end to that,” Jones said.
“The ideology that supports violent extremism isn’t going away any time soon,” she further said.
Asked about the announcement made by Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Gen. Ronald Dela Rosa that Malaysian jihadist Muhammad Amin Baco has replaced Isnilon Hapilon as the new Daesh emir in Southeast Asia, Jones said: “It looks like he jumped to (that) conclusion.”
Jones stressed “there’s no way” that Baco is Daesh’s new emir in Southeast Asia.
She said there may have been information from captured Indonesian Muhammad Ilham Syahputra that Baco was there when Hapilon and the Maute brothers were killed, and he (Baco) may have temporarily assumed leadership of the stragglers in Marawi. “But you can’t extrapolate from that to saying that somebody is emir,” Jones emphasized.
“I’m not sure what the basis was on which the police chief made that statement,” Jones said, adding: “I don’t think we have any evidence to support that.”
Liberation of Marawi City from Maute group has not ended threat of violent extremism in the Philippines.
Liberation of Marawi City from Maute group has not ended threat of violent extremism in the Philippines.
Afghanistan bets on ‘red gold’ for global market presence
- Afghanistan is the world’s second-largest saffron producer, after Iran
- Afghan saffron has been for years recognized as the world’s best
Kabul: As the saffron harvest season is underway in Afghanistan, traders are expecting better yields than in previous years, sparking hopes that exports of the precious crop, known locally as “red gold,” will help uplift the country’s battered economy and livelihoods.
Afghanistan is the world’s second-largest saffron producer, after Iran, but it ranks first in terms of quality. In June, the Belgium-based International Taste Institute for the ninth consecutive year recognized Afghan saffron as the world’s best.
Saffron is the world’s most expensive spice, selling for about $2,000 per kilogram. Its exports provide critical foreign currency to Afghanistan, where US-imposed sanctions have severely affected the fragile economy since the Taliban took control in 2021.
With this year’s production expected to exceed 50 tons — about double that of the 2023 and 2022 seasons — the government and the Afghanistan National Saffron Union are trying to boost exports abroad.
“The harvest of saffron this year is good. During the first nine months (of 2024), Afghanistan exported around 46 tons of saffron to different countries,” Abdulsalam Jawad Akhundzada, spokesperson at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, told Arab News.
“Everywhere our traders want to export saffron, we support them in any part of the world through air corridors and facilitating the participation of Afghan traders in national and international exhibitions.”
Known to have been cultivated for at least 2,000 years, saffron is well suited to Afghanistan’s dry climate, especially in Herat, where 90 percent of it is produced. Most of the spice’s trade is also centered in the province, which last weekend inaugurated its International Saffron Trade Center to facilitate exports.
“The new international saffron trade center is established with global standards and will bring major processing and trade companies to one place providing a single venue for farmers to trade their products with the best possible conditions,” Mohammad Ibrahim Adil, head of the Afghanistan National Saffron Union, told Arab News.
The union’s main export market is India, where saffron is a common ingredient in food, followed by Gulf countries — especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
“Saffron exports bring the much-needed foreign currency to Afghanistan contributing significantly to stabilization of the financial cycle in the country,” said Qudratullah Rahmati, the saffron union’s deputy head.
The union estimates that saffron contributes about $100 million to the Afghan economy a year.
Most, or 95 percent, of the workers are women, according to the saffron union.
“Saffron production is supporting many families, especially women, during the harvest and processing phase through short-term and long-term employment opportunities. There are around 80-85 registered small and big saffron companies in Herat and the small ones employ four to five people while the bigger ones have up to 80 permanent staff,” said Qudratullah Rahmati, the saffron union’s deputy head.
Harvesting the little purple saffron crocus flowers is heavily labor intensive, as each of them needs to be picked by hand. Once the flowers are picked, their tiny orange stigmas are separated for drying. About 440,000 stigmas are needed to produce one kilogram of the fragrant spice.
The harvest season usually begins between October and November are lasts just a few weeks before the flowers wilt.
Pressure ramps up at UN talks to reach a deal for cash to curb and adapt to climate change
- The rough draft of a new proposal circulating in that room was getting soundly rejected, especially by African nations and small island states
- The “current deal is unacceptable for us. We need to speak to other developing countries and decide what to do,” Evans Njewa, the chair of the LDC group, said
BAKU: As nerves frayed and the clock ticked, negotiators from rich and poor nations were huddled in one room Saturday during overtime United Nations climate talks to try to hash out an elusive deal on money for developing countries to curb and adapt to climate change.
But the rough draft of a new proposal circulating in that room was getting soundly rejected, especially by African nations and small island states, according to messages relayed from inside. Then a group of negotiators from the Least Developed Countries bloc and the Alliance of Small Island States walked out because they didn’t want to engage with the rough draft.
The “current deal is unacceptable for us. We need to speak to other developing countries and decide what to do,” Evans Njewa, the chair of the LDC group, said.
When asked if the walkout was a protest, Colombia environment minister Susana Mohamed told The Associated Press: “I would call this dissatisfaction, (we are) highly dissatisfied.”
The last official draft on Friday pledged $250 billion annually by 2035, more than double the previous goal of $100 billion set 15 years ago but far short of the annual $1 trillion-plus that experts say is needed. The rough draft discussed on Saturday was for $300 billion, sources told AP.
Accusations of a war of attrition
Developing countries accused the rich of trying to get their way — and a small financial aid package — via a war of attrition. And small island nations, particularly vulnerable to climate change’s worsening impacts, accused the host country presidency of ignoring them for the entire two weeks.
After bidding one of his suitcase-lugging delegation colleagues goodbye and watching the contingent of about 20 enter the room for the European Union, Panama chief negotiator Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez had enough.
“Every minute that passes we are going to just keep getting weaker and weaker and weaker. They don’t have that issue. They have massive delegations,” Gomez said. “This is what they always do. They break us at the last minute. You know, they push it and push it and push it until our negotiators leave. Until we’re tired, until we’re delusional from not eating, from not sleeping.”
With developing nations’ ministers and delegation chiefs having to catch flights home, desperation sets in, said Power Shift Africa’s Mohamed Adow. “The risk is if developing countries don’t hold the line, they will likely be forced to compromise and accept a goal that doesn’t add up to get the job done,” he said.
Cedric Schuster, the Samoan chairman of the Alliance of Small Island States issued a statement saying they “were not part of the discussion that gave rise to these imbalanced texts” and asked the COP29 presidency to listen to them.
A climate cash deal is still elusive
Wealthy nations are obligated to help vulnerable countries under an agreement reached at these talks in Paris in 2015. Developing nations are seeking $1.3 trillion to help adapt to droughts, floods, rising seas and extreme heat, pay for losses and damages caused by extreme weather, and transition their energy systems away from planet-warming fossil fuels and toward clean energy.
For Panama’s negotiator Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez even a higher $300 billion figure is “still crumbs.”
“How do you go from the request of $1.3 trillion to $300 billion? I mean, is that even half of what we put forth?” he asked.
On Saturday morning, Irish environment minister Eamon Ryan said that there’ll likely be a new number for climate finance in the next draft. “But it’s not just that number — it’s how do you get to $1.3 trillion,” he said.
Ryan said that any number reached at the COP will have to be supplemented with other sources of finance, for example through a market for carbon emissions where polluters would pay to offset the carbon they spew.
The amount in any deal reached at COP negotiations — often considered a “core” — will then be mobilized or leveraged for greater climate spending. But much of that means loans for countries drowning in debt.
Teresa Anderson, the global lead on climate justice at Action Aid, said that in order to get a deal, “the presidency has to put something far better on the table.”
“The US in particular, and rich countries, need to do far more to to show that they’re willing for real money to come forward,” she said. “And if they don’t, then LDCs (Least Developed Countries) are unlikely to find that there’s anything here for them.”
Anger and frustration over state of negotiations
Alden Meyer of the climate think tank E3G said it’s still up in the air whether a deal on finance will come out of Baku at all.
“It is still not out of the question that there could be an inability to close the gap on the finance issue,” he said. “That obviously is not an ideal scenario.”
Jiwoh Emmanuel Abdulai, the Sierra-Leone environment minister, echoed that sentiment, saying “a bad deal may be worse than no deal for us.”
Nations were also angry at potential backsliding on commitments to slash fossil fuels. German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock called out rich fossil fuel emitters who she said have “ripped off” climate vulnerable states.
“We are in the midst of a geopolitical power play by a few fossil fuel states,” Baerbock said. “We have to do everything to come toward the 1.5 degree (Celsius, 2.7 Fahrenheit) pathway” of keeping warming below that temperature limit since preindustrial times, she said.
But despite the fractures between nations, some still held out hopes for the talks.
“We remain optimistic,” said Nabeel Munir of Pakistan, who chairs one of the talks standing negotiating committees.
When asked how, COP29 climate champion Nigar Arpadarai chimed in. “We have no choice,” she said, as the harms of climate change continue to worsen.
Ukraine has lost over 40 percent of the land it held in Russia’s Kursk region, senior Kyiv military source says
- “At most, we controlled about 1,376 square kilometers, now of course this territory is smaller,” the source said
- “Now we control approximately 800 square kilometers“
KYIV: Ukraine has lost over 40 percent of the territory in Russia’s Kursk region that it rapidly seized in a surprise incursion in August as Russian forces have mounted waves of counter-assaults, a senior Ukrainian military source said.
The source, who is on Ukraine’s General Staff, said Russia had deployed some 59,000 troops to the Kursk region since Kyiv’s forces swept in and advanced swiftly, catching Moscow unprepared 2-1/2 years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“At most, we controlled about 1,376 square kilometers (531 square miles), now of course this territory is smaller. The enemy is increasing its counterattacks,” the source said.
“Now we control approximately 800 square kilometers (309 square miles). We will hold this territory for as long as is militarily appropriate.”
The Kursk offensive was the first ground invasion of Russia by a foreign power since World War Two and caught Moscow unprepared.
With the thrust into Kursk, Kyiv aimed to stem Russian attacks in eastern and northeastern Ukraine, force Russia to pull back forces gradually advancing in the east and give Kyiv extra leverage in any future peace negotiations.
But Russian forces are still steadily advancing in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
The Ukrainian General Staff source reiterated that about 11,000 North Korean troops had arrived in the Kursk region in support of Russia, but that the bulk of their forces was still finalizing their training.
The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Kyiv’s freshest assessment of the state of play in the Kursk region. Reuters could not independently verify the figures or descriptions given.
Moscow has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Korean forces in Kursk.
Ukraine’s armed forces chief said on Nov. 11 that its beleaguered forces were not just battling crack Russian reinforcements in Kursk but also scrambling to reinforce two besieged fronts in eastern Ukraine and bracing for an infantry assault in the south.
THREATENING RUSSIAN ADVANCE IN EASTERN UKRAINE
The General Staff source said the Kurakhove region was the most threatening for Kyiv now as Russian forces were advancing there at 200-300 meters (yards) a day and had managed to break through in some areas with armored vehicles backed by anti-drone defenses.
The town of Kurakhove is a stepping stone toward the critical logistical hub of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region.
Overall Russia has about 575,000 troops fighting in Ukraine at the moment, the Ukrainian General Staff source said, and is aiming to increase its forces up to around 690,000.
Russia does not disclose numbers involved in its fighting, and Reuters could not independently verify those figures.
As Ukraine fights a bigger and better-equipped enemy, Kyiv has sought to disrupt Russian logistics and supply chains by hitting Russian weapons and ammunition depots, airfields, and other military targets well inside Russia.
Ukraine gained a freer hand to do so earlier this month after, according to sources familiar with the matter, President Joe Biden dropped his opposition to Kyiv firing US-supplied missiles at targets deep inside Russia in response to North Korea’s entry into the war. Last week Ukraine fired US ATACMS and British Storm Shadow
cruise missiles into Russia. One of the ATACMS targets was an arms depot about 110 km (70 miles) inside Russia. Moscow vowed to respond to what it sees as an escalation by Ukraine’s Western supporters. On Thursday, Russia launched a new medium-range ballistic missile into the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, in a likely warning to NATO.
Ukrainian officials are holding talks with the United States and Britain regarding new air defense systems capable of protecting Ukrainian cities and civilians from the new longer-range aerial threats.
The Ukrainian General Staff source said the military had also implemented measures to bolster air defenses over the capital Kyiv and planned similar steps for the city of Sumy in the north and Kharkiv in the northeast, both near front lines. Russia now occupies a fifth of Ukraine and President Vladimir Putin has said he wants Kyiv to drop ambitions to join the NATO military alliance and retreat from four Ukrainian regions that he partially holds, demands Kyiv has rejected as tantamount to capitulation.
UK police carry out controlled explosion near London Euston station
- LBC News reported earlier that the station had been evacuated
LONDON: British police carried out a controlled explosion near Euston railway station in central London after investigating a suspect package, they said on Saturday.
“A controlled explosion has been carried out by specialist officers and the police cordons have now been lifted,” the capital’s Metropolitan Police said on social media platform X.
LBC News reported earlier that the station had been evacuated.
In a previous statement, the police said they were aware of reports online about an incident “in the vicinity of Euston Station” and that cordons were in place as a precaution.
Those cordons have now been removed, they said in an update.
Afghanistan bets on ‘red gold’ for global market presence
- Afghanistan is the world’s second-largest saffron producer
- Afghan saffron considered world’s best by International Taste Institute
KABUL: With the saffron harvest season underway in Afghanistan, local traders are expecting better yields than in previous years, sparking hopes that exports of the precious crop, known locally as “red gold,” will help improve the country’s battered economy.
Afghanistan is the world’s second-largest saffron producer, after Iran. In June, the Belgium-based International Taste Institute named Afghan saffron as the world’s best for the ninth consecutive year.
Saffron is the world’s most expensive spice, selling for around $2,000 per kilogram. Its exports provide critical foreign currency to Afghanistan, where US-imposed sanctions have severely affected the economy since the Taliban took control in 2021.
With this year’s saffron yield expected to exceed 50 tons — roughly double that of the 2023 and 2022 seasons — the government and the Afghanistan National Saffron Union are looking to boost exports.
“The harvest of saffron this year is good. During the first nine months (of 2024), Afghanistan exported around 46 tons of saffron to different countries,” Abdulsalam Jawad Akhundzada, spokesperson at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, told Arab News. “Everywhere our traders want to export saffron we support them through air corridors and facilitating the participation of Afghan traders in national and international exhibitions.”
Known to have been cultivated for at least 2,000 years, saffron is well suited to Afghanistan’s dry climate, especially in Herat, where 90 percent of Afghan saffron is produced. Most saffron trading is also centered in the province, which last weekend inaugurated its International Saffron Trade Center to facilitate exports.
“The new center has been established in accordance with global standards and will bring major processing and trade companies to one place, providing a single venue for farmers to trade their products in the best possible conditions,” Mohammad Ibrahim Adil, head of the Afghanistan National Saffron Union, told Arab News.
The union’s main export market is India, where saffron is a common ingredient in food, followed by the GCC — especially Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
“Saffron exports bring much-needed foreign currency to Afghanistan, contributing significantly to stabilization of the financial cycle in the country,” said Qudratullah Rahmati, the saffron union’s deputy head.
The union estimates that saffron contributes about $100 million to the Afghan economy a year.
Around 95 percent of the workers in the saffron industry are women, according to the union.
“Saffron production is supporting many families, especially women, during the harvest and processing phase through short- and long-term employment opportunities. There are around 80-85 registered saffron companies in Herat. The small ones employ four to five people while the bigger ones have up to 80 permanent staff,” Rahmati explained.
Harvesting saffron is difficult and time-consuming work. The flowers are handpicked, and their tiny orange stigmas are separated for drying. Roughly 440,000 stigmas are needed to produce one kilogram of the fragrant spice.
The harvest season usually begins sometime in October or November and lasts just a few weeks.
