Hilary Benn (Report, 29 September)
is right to oppose British boots on the ground in Syria. But we should
be insistent that the UK now officially recognises the actual boots on
the ground, the Syrian Kurdish YPG and YPJ,
which have been so courageously fighting Isis for the last few years
(almost alone), and that we provide them with the modern armour they so
urgently need to defend themselves and clear Syria of these barbaric
terrorists. The lack of support to them is incomprehensible.
Noujain Mustaffa’s shy laugh and excited optimism – and her
matter-of-fact description of the terror of civil war – had already made
her stand out amid the media coverage of the Syrian refugee crisis.
Not only had she the 20-day journey to Germany in a wheelchair – Mustaffa suffers from cerebral palsy – but she told television news reporters that she had enjoyed the trip.
But she could not have guessed that her name was about to be spoken
to millions more – by her favorite American soap opera characters,
courtesy of US TV host John Oliver, in a clip that has spread further across online news sites and social media.
Mustaffa was interviewed by the BBC,
as she sat by the side of a road in Germany where refugees were making
their weary and nerve-racking way to safety. But she confounded the
expectations of veteran correspondent Fergal Keane with a gleeful
description of the perilous journey.
“I’ve tried many things for the first time, a train, a ship, so I
enjoyed it!” she told the incredulous journalist – as images of the girl
sitting in her wheelchair in the precarious rubber dinghy that brought
her across the sea flash up on screen.
Keane asked her what her hopes are – and laughed with admiration
when, grinning brightly, she replied: “I want to be an astronaut and go
out and find an alien. And I want to meet the Queen.”
She then cut to the heart of the refugee crisis, saying: “Imagine you
are 16 and you are always afraid to be dead at any minute.”
In a separate interview with ABC, she explained how she came to speak
such good English – from watching television – specifically the daytime
soap opera Days of Our Lives, which is syndicated to many countries
around the world.
Now the irrepressible teenager has made it on to the hit US
late-night talk and news satire show Last Week Tonight, presented by
John Oliver.
Oliver’s latest show featured a long segment where he took fierce
issue with politicians and conservative-leaning television news stations
portraying the arrival into the European Union of war refugees and
migrants, escaping poverty or economic stagnation, in derogatory terms,
often with tones of racism or Islamophobia.
As part of the item, he showed the BBC’s evocative interview with
Noujain Mustaffa and then ended the serious segment by saying he was
going to make a small gesture towards her and had “made a few calls”.
There then followed a clip, on a set resembling that of the soap Days
of Our Lives, where Mustaffa’s two favorite characters, a glamorous
couple called Sami and EJ, are reunited in a romantic clinch.
In the actual series, the character EJ had died, so Oliver simulated a
piece of drama with the actors that shows EJ has miraculously come back
to life, and that twist of fate allows the characters to bring in the
story of Mustaffa.
In the clip, Sami says that EJ’s fantastical journey back to life via “a German witch doctor” must have been horrible.
But EJ says coming back to life is not hard.
“You know what’s hard? Getting from Syria
to Germany,” the character says, continuing: “There are some amazing
people coming through that border. This amazing 16-year-old girl,
Noujain Mustaffa, she’s our kind of people, we’ll get to meet her one
day.”
He repeats her name slowly and deliberately in close-up to camera. The couple embraces and the clip fades.
It is not yet known when Mustaffa may get to see the clip. She had a
tearful reunion with her brother Bland at a German train station after
arriving from Syria and she has applied for asylum, the BBC reported.
The president of the European council, Donald Tusk, has made a passionate defence of European values and accused critics of the continent’s response to a wave of refugees from the Middle East of hypocrisy.
In a speech to the UN general assembly, Tusk said Europe is
confronting challenges it has not seen for decades including wars close
to its frontiers, an “unprecedented refugee and migrant crisis” and the
“consequences of borders being changed on our continent by force, like
in Ukraine”.
But while he acknowledged what he termed “animated discussion” within the EU over quotas for resettling refugees,
with several countries strongly opposed to accepting them, Tusk said
that should not be misinterpreted as evidence the continent is turning
its back on its ideals.
“I am here today to reassure you that Europe is as committed to its
values and objectives now, as it has ever been,” he said. “For Europe, isolationism has never been, and will not be, an option.”
Noting that people are fleeing to Europe not from it, Tusk said that
critics should ask themselves why it is so many migrants headed there
and not elsewhere.
“The myth prevails that Europe is the only rich place on Earth. This
is not true; there are other places comparable to us in terms of wealth.
But for some reason, refugees and migrants are not flowing there,” he
said.
“This is because wealth is not the only element that determines where
people choose the future for their children; such values like
tolerance, openness, respect for diversity, freedom, human rights and
the Geneva convention are also a magnet attracting them to us.”
Tusk contrasted the situation in Europe with what he termed the
“indifference” of the continent’s critics who choose not to admit
refugees – a stab perhaps aimed at Russia and at rich Gulf states run by
oppressive regimes, which rarely grant refugee status to people fleeing
conflict in the Middle East.
“If in Europe we are engaged in animated discussions on relocation
quotas, it is because we care. It is because we seek to be as effective
and as inclusive as possible. But quotas are just a fraction of what
Europe is already doing to help those who flee wars and persecution,” he
said.
“By contrast, many countries represented here deal with this problem
in a much more simple way; namely by not allowing migrants and refugees
to enter their territories at all.
“This is why suggesting that Europe is an example of poor treatment or indifference towards asylum-seekers is sheer hypocrisy.
“Everyone can offer help to the refugees. Those who do not want to,
at least shouldn’t hide their indifference by criticising Europe for
doing too little.”
Tusk said that ultimately the refugee crisis will be resolved by
ending the conflicts underpinning it. He challenged attempts by Russia
to promote a settlement in Syria with a political deal that would allow
its leader, Bashar al-Assad, to remain in power – an idea that is gaining currency among some European governments as a preferable alternative to a takeover by the Islamic State.
“Today the circle of proponents of the idea that Bashar al-Assad
should be part of Syria’s transition is growing. Yet we cannot forget
that millions of people have fled his horrific methods of trying to
secure stability in Syria. During my trips to the region, I was told
that Assad’s victory would only lead to another exodus. The only goal
and intention of a peace plan for Syria must be to make it possible for
the people to again start leading normal lives in the region,” he said.
Seven al-Jazeera journalists convicted in absentia on spurious
terror-related charges in Egypt have begun the process of requesting a
formal pardon from Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.
The move comes just a week after two al-Jazeera colleagues, Mohamed Fahmy and Baher Mohamed, were pardoned by Sisi following
two years in prison. Their pardons now clear a legal pathway for the
group of seven, which includes Australian reporter Peter Greste and two
British correspondents, to see their convictions overturned.
At a press conference in New York on Tuesday, Greste said the
remaining conviction had placed him under a “form of glorified house
arrest” by limiting his ability to travel.
“Once I was released from prison, I thought I was going to be free.
It turns out that I’m not. I still have this conviction and all of its
consequences hanging over my head,” said Greste, speaking at the offices
of the Committee to Protect Journalists. Egypt has extraditions treaties with dozens of countries, including many countries in the African Union and the Middle East.
In June, al-Jazeera journalist Ahmed Mansour was detained in Germany
following an extradition request from the Egyptian government. He was
later released following a review by the Berlin state prosecutor’s office.
Greste and 19 other al-Jazeera reporters were charged with false
reporting, bringing Egypt into disrepute and conspiring with terrorists.
He, along with Fahmy, a Canadian national, and local producer Mohamed,
were arrested in a raid in Cairo in December 2013 and were held in
solitary confinement for a month before being charged.
Greste spent over 400 days imprisoned in Egypt before he was deported
in February only to be convicted in absentia during a retrial.
The Australian said on Tuesday that he had formally commenced pardon
proceedings by submitting a letter to the president through the Egyptian
courts. His case had already taken a positive turn after Australian
foreign minister Julie Bishop met with her Egyptian counterpart, Sameh
Shoukry at the UN general assembly on Friday and was informed the president was investigating the legal avenues available to grant a pardon.
The British foreign office is yet to make a public comment on the
potential pardons for Sue Turton, a former al-Jazeera English foreign
correspondent who quit earlier in the year
after claiming the travel restrictions imposed by the conviction made
it impossible to work and senior producer Dominic Kane, who remains
employed by the news agency.
Responding to a question from the Guardian on Tuesday, Turton said
the pair were receiving assistance from the foreign office, but had not
been given specific information on the nature of the lobbying conducted
on their behalf.
“The foreign office tell us there is an awful lot going on behind the
scenes, there have been various meetings at UNGA. I don’t know any
details but they tell us that they are putting forward our case on a
regular basis,” Turton said.
Both Turton and Kane said they were at the “very beginning stages” of
the pardon process and had requested the foreign office act on their
behalf.
“We are operating in a sort of fugitive limbo. Over the past, nearly
two years now, we have been afraid perhaps of where we could go to, what
countries we could report from, and it has had a serious impact on our
careers,” Kane added.
The other four reporters involved in the case are all Egyptian:
Mohamed Fawzy, a senior cameraman; Anas Abdel Wahab, a senior producer;
Khalil Bahnacy, acting head of transmission at Al Jazeera documentary
and Alaa Bayoumi, a senior producer. The latter three have been unable
to return to Egypt following the court action.
At least 18 other journalists are currently imprisoned in Egypt, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
A day after an Obama-Putin summit at which the White House said it had reached “clarity” on Russian intentions in Syria,
Barack Obama’s defense chief instructed his staff to establish a
communication channel with the Kremlin to ensure the safety of US and
Russian military operations.
Ashton Carter, the US defense secretary, seeks to “avoid conflict in
the air” between the two militaries, said Peter Cook, the Pentagon
spokesman.
“The safety of coalition pilots [is] critically important to us. We
do not want misjudgment and miscalculation. We do not want an accident
to take place,” Cook said.
Cook said the initial and primary purpose of the channel, agreed to
on Monday between Obama and Putin at the United Nations, is to ensure no
accident takes place between US and Russian pilots. But he did not rule
out the communications line as a potential mechanism for outright
cooperation with the Russian military against Islamic State (Isis).
A senior official advising Obama at the UN summit on Monday said Obama emerged from his meeting with Putin with “clarity”
on the objectives of Russia’s dramatic out-of-area deployment of
military force in Syria: “to go after Isil and to support the
government” of Bashar Assad. Russia
has sent more than two dozen military jets – including the Sukhoi Su-24
bomber; the Su-25 close air support “Frogfoot”; and surveillance drones
– to Assad’s western Latakia air base, the site of heavy Russian
expansion during September. The US conducts daily airstrikes against
Isis forces, mostly in the Syrian east that the jihadist army has
wrested from Assad’s control.
Observers have interpreted the Russian buildup as a play to bolster
Assad, a Putin client, and to ensure Russian influence over any
post-Assad government as a fallback, with attacking Isis as a distant
priority.
It raises questions about whether the Russians will use their air
presence to attack the few anti-Assad forces whom the US is training to
battle Isis – a program that has come under review after it has failed
to produce the ground army the US administration promised last year
would roll back Isis gains – much as the new “deconfliction” channel
raises the prospect of Russian attempts to stop US flights on behalf of
Assad’s enemies.
Cook warned Russia against any moves against anti-Assad forces under US sponsorship.
“Anything that undermines their effectiveness would be something of concern,” Cook said.
Kim Davis, the Kentucky county court clerk who spent five days in jail for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, is reported to have had a private meeting with the pope during his historic US tour.
According to a statement posted on the website of Christian lobby group the Liberty Council,
Pope Francis met Davis and her husband, Joe, at the Vatican’s
Washington DC embassy on Thursday. The statement carries the stamp of
the Liberty Council’s founder and chairman, Matt Staver, who is acting
as Davis’s lawyer in her dispute with the court.
The statement, which is based on a report from Inside The Vatican,
says that the pope thanked Davis for her “courage” and told her to
“stay strong”. He then said he would pray for her and presented both her
and her husband with a rosary, the Liberty Council claimed.
Davis is then quoted as saying that she was “humbled” by the
experience: “I never thought I would meet the pope. Who am I to have
this rare opportunity? I am just a county clerk who loves Jesus and
desires with all my heart to serve him.”
“Pope Francis was kind, genuinely caring, and very personable,” her statement continued. “He even asked me to pray for him. Pope Francis thanked me for my courage and told me to ‘stay strong’.”
The Vatican has not responded to the reports.
Staver, who founded the Liberty Council in 1989, linked the meeting
to the pontiff’s comments about conscientious objection, which prompted a
flurry of speculation about whether the pope was referring to Davis.
“Not only did Pope Francis know of Kim Davis, he personally met with her to express his support,” Staver said.
In a press conference held on his flight back to Rome after completing his US tour, the pope appeared to show support for Davis, saying that conscientious objection was a “human right”.
“I do not recall all specific cases of conscientious objection,” he
said. “But what I can say, is that conscientious objection is a human
right. And if a person does not allow others to be conscientious
objectors, then they deny them a right.”
The reported meeting with Davis contrasts with the pope’s public appearances during the five day papal tour, where he was praised for his progressive views on immigration, criticism of sexual abuse by the clergy, and the need to “reinvigorate” the church by valuing the “immense contribution” of women.
The pope did not make any public comments on marriage equality, to
the frustration of more conservative Catholics. His closest reference
was to say there were “unprecedented changes” occurring in the family.
Saudi Arabia has called on Bashar al-Assad to give up power or be
removed by force, raising the global stakes at a time when the Russians
are shipping troops and military hardware to Syria in an effort to prop up its beleaguered leader.
The threat was made on Tuesday by Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Adel Al-Jubeir.
“There is no future for Assad in Syria,” Jubeir told journalists at
the UN general assembly. “There are two options for a settlement in
Syria. One option is a political process where there would be a
transitional council. The other option is a military option, which also
would end with the removal of Bashar al-Assad from power.”
“This could be a more lengthy process and a more destructive process
but the choice is entirely that of Bashar al-Assad.” The foreign
minister did not specify how Assad would be forcibly removed, but
pointed out that Saudi Arabia is already backing “moderate rebels” in
the civil war.
The Saudi intervention fuelled an already heated row at the UN over
Syria’s future, where the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, issued a
forthright defence of the Syrian regime, describing it as fighting a
lonely and “valiant” battle against Islamic State extremists.
Putin has redoubled his support for Assad by a significant and growing military deployment in Syria.
US officials said on Tuesday that four advanced aircraft, Sukhoi Su-34
“Fullback” fighters had arrived at Latakia air base in western Syria,
bringing the total number of Russian planes stationed there to over 30.
The planes are ostensibly there to attack Isis, but have yet to fly
any combat missions, western officials say. Laurent Fabius, France’s
foreign minister, derided Russian claims to be leading the
anti-terrorist campaign in Syria, as “media strikes rather than real
strikes”.
“The fight against Daesh [the Arabic acronym for Isis] is an absolute
necessity but it must not be just a fight only through the media. It
must be a real one,” he said. “And when I’m looking at who is really
committed in the fight of Daesh … as far as Bashar al-Assad is
concerned, it’s still recent and it’s still modest. So as far as our
Russian partners are concerned, up to now they didn’t yet [do anything]
against Daesh.”
By contrast, Fabius said: “We the French this week struck against a Daesh camp. We have to judge realities and not mass media.”
The US has also carried out airstrikes
against Isis inside Syria, and following an Obama-Putin summit on
Monday – which US officials said brought greater clarity on Russian
intentions – the US defence secretary, Ash Carter, issued instructions
on Tuesday for communications channels to be opened with the Russian military to avoid the chance of collision on exchange of fire in Syrian airspace.
The US meanwhile sought other means to contain Isis. As Barack Obama
opened the anti-Isis summit on Tuesday, the US government announced
sanctions against 25 people and five groups connected to Isis in moves
it said were aimed at hitting the activities of financial, logistical
and recruiting operatives.
Opening the summit, Obama said: “This is not going to be turned
around overnight … There are going to be successes and there are going
to be setbacks. This is not a conventional battle. This is a long-term
campaign – not only against this particular network, but against its
ideology.
“But, ultimately, I am optimistic. In Iraq and in Syria, Isil
[another acronym for the Islamic State] is surrounded by communities,
countries and a broad international coalition committed to its
destruction,” he said. “Like terrorists and tyrants throughout history,
Isil will eventually lose because it has nothing to offer but suffering
and death.”
Reiterating his position that Assad cannot stay, Obama said: “In
Syria, defeating Isil requires a new leader and an inclusive government
that unites the Syrian people in the fight against terrorist groups.
This is going to be a complex process. And as I’ve said before, we are
prepared to work with all countries, including Russia and Iran, to find a
political mechanism in which it is possible to begin a transition
process.”
Fabius also argued it made no moral or practical sense for Assad to
remain if the goal was to rebuild a new, free and united Syria.
“How can you imagine that the Syrian refugees – 80% of whom fled
Syria because they were under threat from Assad – how can you imagine
that they go back to Syria if we tell them that the future of Syria is
Bashar al-Assad?” Fabius asked. He said a political transition mechanism
had to be negotiated, but was not specific about timing.
Meanwhile, he said that France had revived the idea of the creation and enforcement of “safe zones” inside Syria where civilians would be protected both from the regime and Isis.
“It could be an idea to have within Syria one or two or three … safe
zones, security zones, in order that these zones will be able to welcome
Syrian people without forcing them to go out of the country. We are
working on that,” Fabius said, again without offering details on how
such zones could be achieved.
Russia continues to promote a separate negotiating effort, seeking
to recruit countries to its view of Syria and the need for Assad to
remain. The foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, is chairing a ministerial
meeting to that end on Wednesday. French officials said that Fabius
would attend.
