Nations divided by history

SALEEM SAMAD

There are many nations and communities that became divided after years of animosity but were later reunified. 

The reunification of Germany is the best example of such reunification. Vietnam, Romania, and Moldova are also living peacefully as one ethnic community or based on nationalism.

North and South Yemen’s unification in May 1990 formed the present Republic of Yemen. Yemen has topped the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with women and children, and especially infants, bearing the brunt of the civil war.

Many historians argue that China should also be listed as a unified country following the rise of the Communist Party. But the controversial invasions of Tibet and East Turkestan (Xinjiang province) have provoked a political crisis after ethnic Tibetan and Uyghur Muslims refused to accept the Chinese Communist Party’s hegemony.

Thousands have fled the region, including the most revered Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, after the invasion of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Today, the ethnic Tibetan and Uyghur are dehumanized and marginalized, and the majoritarian Hans from central China govern the nation.

Cyprus remains divided since the slice of cake is shared by the Turkish and Greek military. Despite their United Nations-brokered peace, the rival countries refuse to withdraw troops occupying the picturesque island.

Korea is another bitter example of a split-up since the Korean War (1950-53). North Korea remains under the hegemony of China. The giant neighbour provides military aid and spoon-fed economic benefits to the despotic rule of the Kim Il-sung dynasty. The reunification of Korea remains a far cry, and the tears of thousands of separated families in Korea have dried.

In South Asia, however, several ethnic, linguistic, religious, and cultural communities have been divided by a thick line since the partition of 1947. The British colonialists deliberately wanted to divide Punjab and Bengal. Their prime annoyance was that native revolutionaries against the British Raj were fortunately born in Bengal and Punjab.

Pakistan, months after independence in August 1947, sent troops to forcibly occupy an independent Balochistan. It was also able to grab a chunk of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in 1948, and still retain the territories. The annexed “heaven on earth” is “Azad Kashmir,” governed by a puppet administration handpicked by the generals in Rawalpindi GHQ.

Both the United Nations and the OIC have shown cold feet on the issue of Kashmir. The UN Security Council Resolution 47, adopted on April 21, 1948, concerns the resolution of the Kashmir conflict.

Before 1947, J&K was a princely state under the British Raj and was ruled by a Hindu Maharaja. With the declining British Empire, it was decided that the rulers of 584 princely states would be given the option of “accession” with any new of the countries of India and Pakistan, or remain an independent nation-state.

The raiders of Kashmir were recruited from the fiercest Pashtun warriors, and the Maharaja fled to Delhi and signed an accession treaty in October 1947. The clandestine invasion happened with the full knowledge of Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and a green signal from Prime Minister Liaqat Ali Khan.

Promptly, India took the matter to the UN Security Council and claimed Pakistan’s armed barbarians had attacked J&K, which was Indian territory. The UN Resolution 47 urged that armed Pakistan nationals and tribesmen be withdrawn. Similarly, India must withdraw its military and hold a plebiscite (referendum) to determine the future of the people of Kashmir.

Neither India nor Pakistan have any intention to withdraw troops, and the neighbours have fought four wars over Kashmir. Meanwhile, the Pakistan spy agency ISI regularly infiltrates militants and jihadists to give a strong message that they have not forgotten Kashmiri Muslims.

Kashmir is one of the world’s few countries where truce along the Line of Control (LoC) remains elusive, because of “high walls” that leaders have built between the nations.

First published in the Dhaka Tribune, 3 August 2021

Saleem Samad is an independent journalist, media rights defender, recipient of Ashoka Fellowship and Hellman-Hammett Award. He can be reached at saleemsamad@hotmail.com; Twitter @saleemsamad

Iran using coronavirus to lobby for lifting of sanctions

Photo: Reuters

SALEEM SAMAD

Is Iran using the coronavirus to lobby for lifting of sanctions?

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s clerics -- President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif -- shrewdly appear to be investing significant political capital in a global campaign to have all sanctions against the theocratic regime lifted.

Iran clerics blame the imposition of economic sanctions by the United States to have caused a heavy toll in the Covid-19 public health crisis -- the confirmed cases are nearly 58,500 while deaths have risen to more than 3,600, as of April 6.

Taking the crisis as an issue with the West, Tehran has launched a new diplomatic campaign admitting its failure of clinical management of the pandemic.

The Iranian leaders are desperate for the US to lift its sanctions and are placing significant pressure on the international community to release financial resources, including those which are frozen by the Trump administration, as explained by Dr Majid Rafizadeh, an Iranian-American political scientist based in the US.

Not very surprisingly, several US lawmakers, including Sen Bernie Sanders, Rep Ilhan Omar, Sen Elizabeth Warren, and Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have succumbed to the excuse given by the regime’s foreign minister Javad Zarif.

Fortunately, the US sanctions do not include medical or humanitarian restrictions, which could impact the fight against Covid-19, argues Iran watchers.

The outbreak of the virus has nothing to do with the much-talked-about US sanctions, instead of the clerical regime’s failure to contain the crisis efficiently.

“If the timeline of the Iran cleric’s activities is analyzed, it could be understood from the stubbornness of the regime,” says Hanif Jazayeri, an Iranian opposition activist based in London.

In January, the regime’s supreme leader authorized more than $215 million for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) backed Quds Force, engaged in proxy wars in Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.

Iran’s regime recently spent $67m redecorating the Zeynab Shrine in Syria with funds that could instead be used in the fight against the pandemic.

When the first case of a coronavirus victim was detected in mid-February in the religious city of Qom, authorities covered up its existence when they asked the people to take part in the sham parliamentary elections.

President Hassan Rouhani has overtly ruled out quarantining any cities and instead “donated” 3 million face masks to China as a “sign of long-term and traditional friendship between two countries.”

On the other hand, the IGRC has been caught hoarding millions of medical supplies, including disinfectants, gloves, and masks, while selling them on the black market at 10 times the price.

Ever since the outbreak, the Mahan Air, affiliated with the IRGC, has continued its flight to and from China, the geographical source of Covid-19.

Despite the conflict, the US has offered to support Iran during the coronavirus crisis via the Swiss Humanitarian Trade Arrangement and also exempted the donation of medicine to Iran from US sanctions. Unfortunately, the US offer was outright rejected by the regime in Tehran.

The WHO has sent Iran diagnostic kits and protective equipment for health care workers, including 7.5 tons of medical supplies. The United Arab Emirates also sent two planeloads of hygienic items to Iran, while Kuwait pledged to help Iran with $10m without any restriction.

Nevertheless, Iran’s Foreign Minister continues to threaten the international community that, if the sanctions against Iran are not lifted, the widespread coronavirus pandemic will endanger other countries’ national security.

The Rouhani-Zarif duo is trying to cash in on the coronavirus tragedy by pushing the US and the international community to lift all sanctions against the Iranian regime.

First Published in the Dhaka Tribune on 6 April 2020

Saleem Samad is an independent journalist, media rights defender, and recipient of Ashoka Fellow (USA) and Hellman-Hammett Award. Twitter @saleemsamad, Email saleemsamad@hotmail.com

Iran, a nation plunged into crisis of competency, legitimacy

Rogue warlord General Qassem Soelimani commander of Quds Force killed in a US drone attack

SALEEM SAMAD

Iran, a nation plunged into crisis of competency, legitimacyQasem Soleimani

The aura of solidarity after General Qasem Soleimani's assassination temporarily created across

Iran soon gave way to hostility after a Ukraine Airlines was shot down by an Iranian missile.

The clerics of the Islamic Republic of Iran have finally plunged into a series of crisis faced internally and externally.

Never before the tens of thousands of Iranians in self-exile have stepped outside their abode to protest Islamic Iran's erroneous political policies and appalling human rights status meted by street protesters demanding democracy.

Iran's role in the geopolitics of the Middle-East since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 the religious fundamentalism plays as a catalyst in the formulation of Iran's foreign policy.

Iran's proxy war strategy which is practiced through hybrid Shia militias in the region. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and its Quds Force, plays an important role in Iranian politics and security decisions.

The Quds Force engaged in hybrid war has been authorised by the Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to punish the most hated countries in Middle-East.

The assassinated Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani by US drone attack has shown success in waging proxy wars in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Yemen to punish American allies Israel, Saudi Arabia and Emirates.

In the early 1980s only, when Ayatollah Ali Khomeini, who spearheaded the Islamic Revolution had been facing a war with Iraq, it started its policy of recruitment and mobilisation of Shia Muslims to raise rag-tag militias in all over the Middle-East to counter its arch-foes, Saddam Hussein's Baathist Iraq.

Iran backed Hezbollah involved proxies in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan have always remained involved, either directly or indirectly, in every conflict of Middle-East.

These proxy groups became immensely active after Baghdad fell to the United States in 2003. This hybrid warfare strategy immensely benefited Iran, by avoiding direct military confrontations and therefore hiding Iran's conventional military weaknesses and reshaping the politics of Iraq in its favour.

One of the very important factors regarding how Iran has been able to maintain his influence in the geopolitics of the Middle-East is due to its properly systematised network of proxies and its state actor IRGC and Quds Force.

Iran has always used these hybrid militias for strategic purposes, strengthening of its national security and its revolutionary agenda.

The conventional threat to Iran is mainly posed by the United States and its allies in the Middle East, but mainly Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Another threat that Iran faces is by Jihadist groups like Islamic State and Al-Qaeda affiliates in the Arab countries and Afghanistan.

If we talk about Syria, Iran's influence in the balance of power and politics of the Middle-East has accelerated to a new level after the eruption of civil wars in Syria and Yemen.

Syria has been a steady ally of Iran since the inception of the Islamic Republic in 1979 and has always supported the father and son duo of Hafez-al-Assad and Bashar-al-Assad respectively due to their allegiance to Alawite sect of Shia Islam.

Iran's support to the Houthis started in 1990 with an objective to protect the Zaidism sect of Shia Islam in Yemen.

Evidence of Iran's support and military assistance to Houthi rebels came to surface in 2012 when the United States found the Quds Force providing training to the Houthis in Saddah, a small town in Yemen.

Through these proxies, Iran has successfully encountered Saudi Arabia, American and Israeli influence in the region. The influence became unpredictable in the region and the USA had to redo its policy for the Arab states.

First published in The Asian Age, 25 January 2020

Saleem Samad is an independent journalist, media rights defender, recipient of Ashoka Fellow (USA) and Hellman-Hammett Award. Twitter @saleemsamad: Email: saleemsamad@hotmail.com

Proxy Warlord Who Undermines US Capabilities

SALEEM SAMAD

Qassim Soleimani, a shadowy Iranian general and head of rogue Quds Forces who has been blamed for exporting proxy war in the Middle East region had undermined the capability of the United States. Iran's clerics tasked the Quds Force with spreading Iran's influence abroad. In the past two decades, Suleimani had extraordinary success in implementing Tehran's objective in exporting proxy war in the region.

General Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force killed in a US drone strike at Baghdad airport on early on 3rd January, was the most influential military figures in Iran. Revered by Iranian as an iconic military commander and a blue-eyed boy of Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, was born in a peasant family in a small city in eastern Iran to become one of the most prominent military figures.

In the chaos and death that followed the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and the 2011 Syrian revolution, Suleimani took the opportunity, pouring in men and money to build a crescent of pro-Iran forces stretching across the Middle-East. The iconic hero was the mastermind of proxy wars which extended from Gaza to Lebanon, from Iraq to Yemen. Literally, the proxy wars eclipsed Saudi Arabia, the Gulf States and Israel in the west and south. All the hated countries were staunch supporters of United States hegemony in the Middle East.

He successfully raised and trained tens of thousands of pro-Iran forces to destabilise the countries in regular battles for years to demoralise the regimes that Iran hated the most. No doubt his Quds Forces made decisive battles against ISIS or Daesh in Syria and Iraq, Al Qaeda and Taliban in the region, which was silently appreciated by the western powers including Pentagon.

There are not enough narratives about Soleimani's past, as he carefully avoided Iranian media. However, the 61-year-old father of five wasn't a religious scholar and didn't receive a religious education was an icon of Muslim fighters in the region.

In spite of his unknown reasons to participate in the demonstrations that toppled the Shah of Iran in 1979 in an Islamic Revolution orchestrated by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, but he did not hesitate to join the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, and fought in the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88, where his future was made in solid ground.

His name was discussed in the Islamic clergy regime in Tehran after reconnaissance missions behind Iraqi lines during the war. He was given command of a special brigade during the war with Iraq. For commanding abilities and plan covert operations, he was entrusted to strengthen the Quds Force in 1998. The elite troop was raised during the Iran-Iraq war to provide military support to the Kurds in Iraq.

Soon Quds began to train foreign forces and equip them with weapons and also funded them to fight against regimes loyal to the US. The militia forces and warlords - Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen were overtly backed by Iran.

Quds was also responsible for training paramilitary forces in Iraq and Syria to fight the Islamic State (ISIS) Jihadists.

Last April, the United States in a bid to counter Iran-backed terrorism around the world listed Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), including the Quds Force a terrorist organisation. Earlier when the US invaded Afghanistan after the 1/11 terror attacks, Iranian officials - on Soleimani's orders - shared strategic maps with American officials of Taliban bases to target in Afghanistan.

Despite Quds involvement in attacks on US forces in Iraq after the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Soleimani cooperated with the Americans to elect Iraq's interim prime minister in 2010. US Defence Department says at least 603 American personnel were killed in hostile actions in Iraq by Iran-backed fighters.

The US in defence of Americans abroad had to strike the Quds dreaded commander. As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the US airstrike that killed Soleimani disrupted an "imminent attack" and "saved American lives" in the Middle East region. Despite Iran's vow to revenge against the US for killing Qassim Soleimani, it may compel Tehran to think twice before they attack the US or its partners in the region.

First published in The New Nation, Dhaka, Bangladesh on 6 January 2020

Saleem Samad, is an independent journalist, media rights defender, recipient of Ashoka Fellow (USA) and Hellman-Hammett Award. Email: