KUALA LAMPUR: Malaysian pilgrims said on Friday they are enjoying smooth travel under the Makkah Route initiative and are moved by Saudi hospitality as they reach the Kingdom to perform Hajj.
Malaysia is among seven Muslim-majority countries — including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Morocco, Turkiye and Cote d’Ivoire — where Saudi Arabia opened its Makkah Route initiative.
The program, launched in 2019, is dedicated to Hajj pilgrims, allowing them to fulfill all visa, customs and health requirements at their airport of origin, saving long hours of waiting. Upon arrival, pilgrims can enter the Kingdom having already gone through visa and customs processes back home.
This year, 31,600 Malaysians are participating in the annual pilgrimage that is one of the five pillars of Islam.
Those departing from Kuala Lumpur International Airport are taken care of by Saudi immigration officials working round the clock to facilitate their journey under Makkah Route.
“It is a successful program in facilitating the movement of pilgrims through immigration and customs at KLIA and the airports in Madinah and Jeddah,” Mohammed Naser Jaffar, director of media operations for Tabung Hajji — Malaysia’s Hajj board — told Arab News, as he expressed his gratitude to the Saudi government for providing the special service “for the comfort of Malaysian Hajj pilgrims.”
Among those who enjoyed the service was Nuryutta Yahya, who reached the Kingdom accompanied by her father.
“The process of the Makkah Route was very smooth for me and my father,” she told Arab News over the phone from Saudi Arabia.
“I am happy and grateful to be here in Makkah. I am still young, and it is a blessing for me.”
Like many other Malaysians, Yahya was also moved by Saudi hospitality.
“The Saudis here are very friendly,” she said. “Every time we walked by, they would greet us Malaysians!”
Khawlah Al-Azwar Mohd Lukmanuddin, another female pilgrim from Yahya’s group, was full of praise for her hosts’ willingness to assist whenever help is needed.
“If we go to the mosque and seek help, they willingly assist us, even though many of us here do not know how to speak Arabic,” she said.
“They go out of their way to help.”
Malaysian pilgrims grateful for smooth Makkah Route journey, Saudi hospitality
https://arab.news/nceaj
Malaysian pilgrims grateful for smooth Makkah Route journey, Saudi hospitality
- 31,600 pilgrims from Malaysia participating in this year’s Hajj
- Malaysians moved by hosts’ willingness to assist whenever help is needed
France, Morocco sign EUR10 bn in deals during Macron’s reset visit
RABAT: France and Morocco reached agreements on Monday totalling “up to ten billion euros,” sources with direct knowledge to the matter told AFP, during French President Emmanuel Macron’s three-day visit to Morocco aiming to mend strained relations.
Several deals were signed in the presence of Macron and King Mohammed VI, with more expected on Tuesday, including on energy and infrastructure.
Macron’s trip was at the king’s invitation late in September, but also follows years of tense ties with Rabat.
A delegation of French ministers and business leaders accompanied Macron, while French and Moroccan flags flew alongside each other in the city’s main thoroughfares.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, Economy Minister Antoine Armand and Culture Minister Rachida Dati — herself of Moroccan origin — all traveled with the president.
Though specific contract details were not disclosed, French rail manufacturer Alstom is set to supply up to 18 high-speed train cars to Morocco according to the deals signed on Monday.
Energy company Engie and the Moroccan Phosphates Office meanwhile signed a renewables agreement with potential investments reaching up to 3.5 billion euros, according to AFP reporters.
France’s TotalEnergies also inked a deal to develop “green hydrogen” production in the north African country.
Macron’s visit follows years of strained relations between Paris and Rabat over a range of issues.
Those include France’s ambiguous stance on the disputed Western Sahara region and Macron’s quest for rapprochement with Algeria.
Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony, is largely controlled by Morocco but claimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which in 2020 declared a “self-defense war” and seeks the territory’s independence.
It is considered by the United Nations to be a “non-self-governing territory.”
Rabat and Paris have also been at odds after France in 2021 halved the number of visas it granted to Moroccans.
In July, Macron eased tensions by saying Morocco’s autonomy plan for the territory was the “only basis” to resolve the decades-old conflict.
France’s diplomatic turnabout had been awaited by Morocco, whose annexation of Western Sahara had already been recognized by the United States in return for Rabat normalizing ties with Israel in 2020.
Monday’s visit also comes after Macron’s rapprochement efforts with Algeria appear to have hit a dead end.
A state visit to Paris by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune was rescheduled multiple times before being called off by Algiers earlier this month.
After Macron endorsed Morocco’s autonomy plan, Algeria promptly withdrew its ambassador to Paris and has yet to send a replacement.
Arab Americans’ vote will matter in this election, Middle East Institute panel hears
LONDON: Just days before Americans head to the polls to decide who will be the next US president, Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris find themselves neck and neck in the race for the White House. With the contest balanced on a razor’s edge, any minor development at this point could be enough to decisively swing the vote.
Although they make up just 1 percent of the total electorate, Arab Americans represent a significant constituency in several swing states, where even a handful of votes could influence the election outcome. As such, neither of the main candidates can afford to take their votes for granted.
That is why Arab News teamed up with polling agency YouGov to survey the attitudes of Arab Americans across all geographies, age ranges, genders and income brackets to see which way the community was leaning, and what issues mattered to them most.
What became abundantly clear from the survey was that Arab Americans are not a monolith motivated by any single issue. Domestic matters, such as the economy and the cost of living, loomed large, while border security and abortion rights were also key considerations.
However, it was the plight of the Palestinians that emerged as the biggest issue for Arab Americans of all generations; namely the ongoing Israeli offensive against Hamas in Gaza and the perceived failure of President Joe Biden’s administration to rein in Israel.
Brian Katulis, a senior fellow for US foreign policy at Middle East Institute, who moderated a special panel discussion on Monday to examine the poll findings, said the prominence of the Palestinian issue in this election showed there was still a role for the US to play in the region.
“Within the political discussion we’re having in this country, it does imply that there’s actually a strong interest in the US engaging more deeply in the Middle East — just doing it in the right way,” said Katulis.
“There’s a serious difference over who and which candidate is the right way. But for those who’ve said that we should just pull back from the region, restrain ourselves, there’s some who say that, but I think there’s a general impulse here that we need to actually delve more deeply into trying to solve — or not solve, but engage — these questions in a proper way in the region itself, but then politically here at home.”
Asked to place six key issues in order of priority, 26 percent of Arab Americans polled by YouGov said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is their chief concern. The economy and the cost of living were not far behind, representing the chief concerns for 19 percent of respondents.
“The highest priority, in terms of issues that Arab Americans face, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict came at 26 percent — the highest — then followed by the economy and cost of living,” Lara Barazi, a freelance data consultant and former research director at YouGov, told the MEI panel.
Palestine appeared to be of most concern to Arab Americans in lower income brackets: 37 percent of those earning under $40,000, falling to 22 percent among those paid $80,000 or more.
“These are their issues that kind of mirror what’s going on right now in the US, not only for Arab Americans, when we look at income,” said Barazi.
“The highest priority goes to the Palestinian conflict. It’s 41 percent of the lowest earners who support the Palestinian-Israeli conflict versus the highest earners. Basically, they’re interested in the economy, cost of living and the Palestinian conflict, but they do put a lot of weight on the economy and cost of living.”
What was also interesting about the findings was how much of a priority the Middle East conflict was for respondents identifying as Republican, Democrat and independent.
“We see that the highest (ranking) for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict comes from independents and the lowest comes from Republicans,” said Barazi. “Only 17 percent of Republicans said that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a top priority for us, while cost of living comes the highest for Republicans.”
Despite Trump being perceived as more supportive of the Israeli government than Harris, many Arab Americans indicated in the poll that they would still vote for him, which suggested they are penalizing the Democrats over the Biden administration’s perceived failure to rein in Israel.
Asked which candidate they were most likely to vote for, 45 percent said Trump while 43 percent opted for Harris, although this gap could easily be narrowed — or slightly widened — by the survey’s 5.93 percent margin of error.
The slightly higher support for Trump than for Harris comes despite the fact that 40 percent of those polled described themselves as Democrats, 28 percent as Republicans and 23 percent as independents.
The findings were somewhat puzzling, especially as Trump has announced his intention to expand his 2017 travel ban on people from seven majority-Muslim countries (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen) and has said if elected he would bar Palestinian refugees from entering the US, policies that few Arab Americans would support.
Nevertheless, it appears Biden’s record on the Middle East over the past year has been the deciding factor for many.
Also taking part in Monday’s MEI panel discussion, Yasmeen Abu Taleb, a White House reporter at The Washington Post, said the Democrats never expected the issue of Palestine to hang over the campaign in the way that it has.
“We’ve never seen the issue of Palestine be this big of a political issue for this long,” she said. “I think in the Biden administration, there was a sense that people would be really angry and protest for a month or two. They hoped the war would be over by January.
“They were always wildly optimistic that this was not going to hang over them as an election issue. And here we are, more than a year later, and it’s still a key driver of the election. I think that’s an important signal of how much the politics have shifted on this.
“I don’t think we’ve seen this in US politics, where the debate has been this intense and sustained.”
If Harris does beat Trump to the presidency, it remains unclear whether she will shift the Democratic Party’s stance on Israel or if the policy of the Biden administration, of which she is part, will remain broadly unchanged.
“Obviously it depends on who wins but I do think if you saw a Harris presidency, it’s not going to be the dramatic change that people are pushing for,” said Abu Taleb. “But I do think there are signs that the Democratic Party is shifting on Israel, and in subtle but important ways.”
Although the Arab News-YouGov poll focused on Arab American opinion, the panel discussion naturally expanded to the prevailing attitudes among the Arab populations and leaderships in the Middle East. Tarek Ali Ahmad, head of research and studies at Arab News, said that many in the Middle East are holding their breath.
“People are essentially just waiting for the election day to come,” he added. “That’s when everyone’s going to be like, OK, now we can finally stop this election game, campaigning, and we can actually get to solid, concrete policy that will affect what’s going to happen, whether or not we’re going to see an actual end to the conflict, or we’re going to see even further.
“We haven’t heard anything in terms of preference to whichever candidate comes through. But at the same time, we cannot dismiss the fact that any incoming president will have a lot to clean up with regards to everything that’s happening on the ground.”
On whether or not the Arab world has any preference for the US presidency, Ali Ahmad said many in the region have remained tight-lipped, preferring to wait and see the outcome of this closely fought race.
“There’s a lot of different points of view and there’s no real proper preference for either candidate because of the fact that it’s just such a razor-thin difference,” he said.
“Now you have people on the ground talking about how, essentially, every single event that occurs causes a shift in opinion, from (Israel) entering into Lebanon, from the bombing of Iran, to even Biden’s resignation from the nomination.
“So there’s so many different aspects that come to shift public opinion on the ground with regards to who’s going to be president.”
Reflecting on the significance of the role of the Arab American constituency in the election, Ali Ahmad said many seem to recognize their vote can make a significant difference.
“The reason why there’s a big turnout, as we said, nine out of 10 Americans are set to go vote, is that 80 percent of those who responded found that their vote actually counts and will matter in this year's election,” he said.
“They really feel that they could actually change it and make that difference, whether it is to punish the Democrats or whether it is to actually vote for an independent.”
Local humanitarian workers dying in silence, Red Cross warns
- Their deaths are soaring amid clashes in Mideast, Sudan, Ukraine and Myanmar
GENEVA: Local staff and volunteers — the backbone of aid agencies providing help in the world’s worst conflicts — are dying in ever greater numbers. Yet few seem to notice, the head of the Red Cross said in an interview on Monday.
“Almost 95 percent of the humanitarians who are killed are actually the local staff and local volunteers,” Jagan Chapagain, the secretary-general of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
But while the killing of an international staff member of large humanitarian organizations can spark global outrage, there is often little attention paid when a local aid worker suffers the same fate.
“Unfortunately, when a local staffer or volunteer gets killed, it gets hardly any attention,” Chapagain said.
The issue is of particular concern this year, one of the deadliest for humanitarians, with aid worker deaths soaring as conflicts rage in the Middle East, Sudan, Ukraine and Myanmar, among others.
“It has been really the worst year for humanitarian actors, particularly the ones from the local communities,” Chapagain said.
Since the beginning of this year alone, 30 of the network’s volunteers have been killed worldwide, while within the UN system, “they have lost hundreds,” he said.
He decried a clear “erosion” in the respect for international humanitarian law and the principles requiring humanitarians to be protected.
Growing disregard for international law in conflict was significantly “increasing the situation of extreme exposures (and) risk for our humanitarian workers, (with) volunteers getting shot, ambulances getting attacked.”
Respect for the Red Cross Red Crescent emblem, and for people wearing the network’s signatory red vest has “eroded significantly,” he warned.
Asked if he believed humanitarians were being deliberately targeted, he said: “Definitely. Unfortunately, the numbers speak for themselves.”
Chapagain said the IFRC was “seriously, seriously concerned” about the growing dangers facing humanitarians and warned that more people could die if humanitarian workers are not protected.
His IFRC will along with the International Committee of the Red Cross kick off their quadrennial international conference in Geneva on Monday, which is due to focus heavily on the need to boost compliance with international humanitarian law.
It will include participants from the 191 national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, whose staff and volunteers are frequently the ones on the frontlines in conflicts and in the communities under attack.
Chapagain said his team estimated that when “a local gets harmed compared to an international who gets harmed, the attention is one to 500 ratio.”
“Any death is appalling, and we cannot accept that. But what we would also like to see is the same outrage when any humanitarians lose their life.”
“This is something super, super important, because globally... most of the people who are on the frontline providing ... assistance are the people from the local communities,” he said.
“Their lives should be as sacred as anyone else’s.”
Sikh separatist claims Indian ‘spy network’ operates in US and Canada
- The US Justice Department has unsealed indictments against two Indian nationals in connection with an alleged plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun
- The two Indians included an ex-government official, who the indictment said worked as an intelligence officer at the time he orchestrated assassination
NEW YORK: Canada and the US must get tougher on Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for trying to silence dissidents on foreign soil, a Sikh separatist who was the target of an alleged India-led murder plot said in an interview.
The US Justice Department has unsealed indictments against two Indian nationals in connection with an alleged plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual US-Canadian citizen, in New York. The two Indian accused included an ex-government official, who the indictment said worked as an intelligence officer at the time and had orchestrated the assassination plan.
Pannun told Reuters earlier this month that the Modi government should not be allowed to conduct hostile activity in foreign countries and said India’s consulates in the US and Canada were running a “spy network,” although he did not provide any proof.
The US and Canada “need to put their foot down that regimes like Modi’s...should not be allowed to come to America or Canada, challenge their sovereignty and get away with it. They need to put their foot down and close (the consulates) permanently,” he said.
Pannun did not elaborate on the alleged spy network. Similar assertions have been made by Sikh activists in America and Canada.
India’s foreign ministry did not respond to detailed questions from Reuters regarding Pannun’s allegations. India, where Pannun was born, has labelled him a terrorist since 2020.
Authorities in the US and Canada declined comment on Pannun’s allegations.
The US and Canada have alleged Indian agents were involved in assassination plots in their countries last year against campaigners for ‘Khalistan’, a Sikh homeland they want carved out of India’s Punjab state where Sikh militancy in the 1980s and 1990s killed thousands of people.
India has denied involvement in any of the plots.
The allegations have damaged India’s ties with Canada and tested relations between Washington and New Delhi.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has accused India’s government of involvement in the 2023 murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, another Sikh separatist leader in Canada. In May, Canadian police arrested and charged four Indian men for the murder. They are yet to be tried.
India has said Canada has not provided any evidence to support its allegations and New Delhi and Ottawa expelled six diplomats each earlier this month in a growing diplomatic spat.
However, India has said it is investigating the murder plot against Pannun and US officials have said they want a speedy result.
Pannun said Vikash Yadav, the former Indian official indicted by the US for the alleged attempt on his life, was just a “middle-tier soldier,” assigned the task of organizing the assassination by higher-level Indian officials. He did not offer any proof nor say how he had come to the conclusion.
New Delhi has said Yadav was no longer a government employee, without saying whether he had been an intelligence officer and not detailing when he left. Yadav’s whereabouts are not known but his family told Reuters earlier this month he had been in contact and denied the allegations in the US indictment.
Indian security officials have said they fear that a rise in support for Khalistan overseas may lead to resurgence of militancy that had previously paralyzed Punjab state, the birthplace of Sikh nationalism, where the movement for a separate homeland now commands little support.
Pannun, who has been holding independent referendums in the US, Canada and Europe on creating Khalistan, said in the interview his movement advocates peaceful resolution of the matter, and will continue despite threats to his life.
Suspected militant killed in Indian-administered Kashmir after convoy ambush — Indian army
- Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between rivals India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947
- The territory is home to a long-running insurgency and gunmen fired on an army convoy early Monday, but no one was injured
SRINAGAR: Indian troops killed a suspected militant in Indian-administered Kashmir on Monday hours after gunmen sprayed a military convoy with bullets, the army said, the latest attack in the disputed Himalayan territory.
Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between rivals India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, and is home to a long-running insurgency.
Gunmen fired on the army convoy including an ambulance in the early hours of Monday in the mountainous southern Akhnoor area, near the unofficial border with Pakistan. No one was injured.
Soldiers launched a hunt for the attackers, later reporting that one person had been killed.
“Body of one terrorist, along with weapon has been recovered,” the army’s White Knight Corps said in a statement.
At least 500,000 Indian troops are deployed in Indian-administered Kashmir, battling an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of civilians, soldiers and militants since 1989.
Earlier this month, gunmen killed seven people near a construction site of a strategic road tunnel to Ladakh, a high-altitude region bordering China.
On Friday, Indian officials said five people — including three soldiers — were killed in an ambush on an army convoy.
New Delhi regularly blames Pakistan for arming the militants and helping them launch attacks, an allegation Islamabad denies.
The army says more than 720 militants have been killed since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government canceled the territory’s limited autonomy in 2019.
In early October, Indian-administered Kashmir held its first elections since 2014 for a regional assembly for the territory of some 12 million people.
